Entertainment

Netflix's New 'Black Mirror: Bandersnatch' Trailer Confirms The Movie Is Almost Here

For fans of Black Mirror, the need for new content is reaching a high. The last season, its fourth one, premiered on Netflix about a year ago and there have been rumors that another season was coming, or at least something was. Well, that something turned out to be a new standalone movie, and it's coming really soon. The first Netflix's Black Mirror: Bandersnatch trailer revealed it's premiering on Dec. 28, and teased what fans can expect from the newest chapter in the sci-fi series.

On Dec. 27, the day before its premiere date, the trailer for Black Mirror: Bandersnatch was released on YouTube. The trailer runs less than a minute and a half, but it's still full of the typical Black Mirror mysteries and thrills. Bandersnatch takes place in the 1984, and follows a new, young video game programmer who is tasked with adapting a fantasy novel into one a game. However, when the line reality and fantasy begins to blur and the two crossover, his life becomes chaotic and he is faced with a "mind-mangling challenge," according to the video description.

What makes Black Mirror: Bandersnatch different than other Black Mirror releases, other than its bonkers plot, is the fact that this release is a standalone. This isn't part of a larger season, and is the series' first ever movie, as reported by The Daily Beast.

What's even more novel about the project is the rumor that it'll be a choose-your-own-adventure film. There have been reports by Bloomberg that Netflix has been developing this type of episode for Black Mirror, it just hasn't been confirmed by the streaming site yet. Netflix already has interactive episodes on the site on certain children's programming like Puss In Book. Moreover, Netflix responded to Mashable with a bit of a joke when asked for comment on whether or not this new Black Mirror movie would be choose-your-own-adventure. "Thanks for reaching out! You have the ability to choose your own response from Netflix: This or this," they reportedly told Mashable (links included).

If that coy-yet-playful answer wasn't enough of a hint, BuzzFeed also pointed out that there are clues that Bandersnatch is a choose-your-own-adventure in the trailer itself. For one, the fact that it's being marketed as an "Event" in the trailer is an interesting choice of words (not "movie" or "film" or even "TV special"). Plus, the trailer literally says, "Change Your Past, Your Present, Your Future," which, to someone who didn't know about the rumored interactive element, could just be part of the plot. But to others it's all but confirming it. Finally, Ryan Brown, a video game journalist, claimed on Twitter that Black Mirror: Bandersnatch's choose-your-own-adventure format means that "there's 312 minutes of content in total," although that hasn't officially been confirmed.

Bandersnatch wouldn't be the first "special" from Black Mirror, though it might be the first official movie. After its first two seasons, they premiered an episode titled "White Christmas," that is 73 minutes long. It's not the longest episode, however. "Hated in the Nation" from the third season clocks in at 89 minutes, though it was not deemed a "film," just the season finale for that season.

Movie length and choose-your-own-adventure rumors aside, if the trailer confirms anything, it's that Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is going to bring the way-too-close-to-home tech horror fans have come to expect from the show. And that's all audiences can really ask for.