Rory Culken Cast in Netflix's Black Mirror Season 6

The fifth season of Black Mirror was released on Netflix in 2019, and fans of the sci-fi anthology series have been eager for it to return. This year, it was confirmed that Season 6 was in the works and had already begun casting. Some exciting names are expected to appear in the highly-anticipated new season, including Zazie Beetz, Paapa Essiedu, Josh Hartnett, Aaron Paul, Kate Mara, Danny Ramirez, Clara Rugaard, Auden Thornton, and Anjana Vasan. Today, Deadline has revealed another new name from the casting list: Rory Culkin. 

According to the report, nothing is known about Culkin's role in the series or which episode he's expected to appear in. Season 5 of Black Mirror only consisted of three episodes, "Striking Vipers," "Smithereens," and "Rachel, Jack, and Ashley, Too." However, the new season is expected to have more episodes. One reason fans have had to wait so long for a new season is due to creator Charlie Brooker feeling there have been enough disturbing real-world events over the last few years to want to return to the bleak world of Black Mirror.

"At the moment, I don't know what stomach there would be for stories about societies falling apart, so I'm not working away on any of those [Black Mirror episodes]," Brooker shared with Entertainment Weekly back in 2020. "I'm sort of keen to revisit my comic skill set, so I've been writing scripts aimed at making myself laugh." In the time since the end of the last Black Mirror season, Brooker has worked on Death to 2020, a mockumentary about the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, which he and Netflix followed up with Death to 2021 and Attack of the Hollywood Clichés!.

Back in 2019, the interactive episode Black Mirror: Bandersnatch took home the award for Outstanding Television Movie at the Emmy Awards. At the time, it seemed like Netflix was looking to "double down" on interactive content in the future following Bandersnatch's success.

"It's a huge hit here in India, it's a huge hit around the world, and we realized, wow, interactive storytelling is something we want to bet more on," Netflix product VP Todd Yellin said at the time. "We're doubling down on that. So expect over the next year or two to see more interactive storytelling. And it won't necessarily be science fiction, or it won't necessarily be dark. It could be a wacky comedy. It could be a romance, where the audience gets to choose – should she go out with him or him."

Season 6 of Black Mirror doesn't yet have a release date.