By After months of speculation - and a time-consuming distraction via an interactive standalone film - we finally have a release date for season five of Charlie Brooker's dystopian series Black Mirror.
A just-dropped trailer for the series reveals that "three new stories" will be returning to Netflix on 5th June, as tweeted with the ominous caption "you should've seen it coming."
Despite Brooker saying the series would have some more optimistic moments, it doesn't seem to be done with its damming critique of the loneliness and personal destruction that technology causes.
In the trailer we see a glimpse of the one episode where a girl (played by Angourie Rice) forms an attachment to her robot doll, which says to her "you've got 20,000 fans out there, knock 'em dead!" The episode looks like it will examine our obsession with followers in a similar way to season 3 episode 'Nosedive',
It appears to be part of the same episode that features singer Miley Cyrus, her casting was previously confirmed via a slip from the actress. In the trailer we see her looking over her shoulder at the camera while on a rooftop and later dances on stage in a bubblegum pink wig.
Another episode titled 'Smithereens' features Fleabag actor Andrew Scott, who is quivering in a car and holding a gun as police surround the car and people film on their phones from afar. Scott's character appears to have been driven over the edge by his phone as he mimes texting and shouts "everywhere you look people are hooked on the things!"
The title confirms a fan theory after the word 'Smithereens' appeared in one of the pathways on interactive episode Black Mirror: Bandersnatch with a link to Russian bots that may prove to be part of the episode.
The last episode stars Anthony Mackie (Avengers: Endgame) and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Aquaman). Revealing an image of them staring each other down on a rainy street on Entertainment Weekly yesterday Brooker joked that "It’s the Marvel-DC crossover no one saw coming.”
In another snippet, Mackie swipes through a Tinder-esque app filled with women while at a family barbecue. It looks like it is part of the same episode as a Tekken-style video game fight titled 'Striking Vipers', so this end-game might be where the seductive looking app leads.
So far it doesn't seem that any of the episodes are interactive, perhaps after the mixed reviews of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch which was released at the end of last year. Speaking to the New York Times, Brooker said his advice to anyone considering an interactive series was "run away", so he's probably not in a hurry to return to the format.
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