Black Mirror has been known for pushing boundaries and creating scenarios that keep viewers guessing the entire time. However, it looks like the team is looking to try something even more experimental with its upcoming special, Bandersnatch.
As we see in the trailer, a young game developer decides to adapt a fantasy novel into a video game and chooses, as a way to get more creative, to stop taking his medications. Once he begins, however, he falls into a rabbit hole of the author’s and his own making. The official YouTube description of the episode/event is “In 1984, a young programmer begins to question reality as he adapts a sprawling fantasy novel into a video game and soon faces a mind-mangling challenge. Welcome back.” Now, it seems like a pretty standard mind-bending plot, but fans are now postulating, given the trailer’s preoccupation with choice, that the episode will have interactive options for the viewer.
There’s some pretty strong evidence that the episode will be an interactive, choose-your-own-adventure kind of deal. Instead of calling Bandersnatch an episode, it’s been touted as an event. When Mashable reached out to Netflix to confirm some initial reports about the episode, they received this back from them: “Thanks for reaching out! You have the ability to choose your own response from Netflix: This or this.” Additionally, Netflix has already proven it has interactive capabilities, as it created an interactive episode for its original animated show, Puss in Books. Additionally, a Twitter user found this little interesting tidbit about a Commodore 64 game with a simlar name:
Turns out there was an ill-fated game named ‘Bandersnatch’ developed by a UK studio back in 1984, which is the year ‘Bandersnatch’ the Black Mirror episode takes place (we know this because a set photo shows Bob Marley’s ‘Legend’ at #1 on the charts in a record store). pic.twitter.com/rytyTl22sP
— Ebejeevezner Scrooge ⛄🎄🎅🎁❄️ (@jeeveswilliams) November 21, 2018
There are also a couple of hidden Easter eggs in this trailer, like a poster for a game called Metl Hedd, based off of Metal Head from Season 3, and the symbol from Season 2’s White Rabbit is shown in the crazy drawings of the fantasy novel’s author. How is this all connected? No one yet knows but the good thing is that you won’t have to wait long to find out. The episode is, at the time of writing, coming out tomorrow and will be available to watch at 12am PT/8am GMT. Make good choices, everyone.
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch premieres on Netflix on December 28, 2018.
