Black Mirror Creator Working on Mockumentary About 2020 for Netflix

Like the best sci-fi programs, Black Mirror has found ways to explore seemingly far-fetched concepts that are rooted in reality, oftentimes resulting in stories that feel eerily predictive of things that happen in the real world, though series creator Charlie Brooker is reportedly leaning even more heavily into satirizing reality with a mockumentary exploring all of 2020’s unpredictable events. Between the coronavirus pandemic, mass protests about social injustice, and contentious political races, Brooker will clearly have his work cut out for him when it comes to satirizing such an eventful year without actually making light of any of the year’s tragedies.

“I’m doing a thing tomorrow, actually. Charlie Brooker has written a mockumentary about 2020. It’s for Netflix, and I am a historian who’s being interviewed about the year,” Hugh Grant shared of the upcoming project to Vulture. “I’m pretty repellent, actually! And you’ll like my wig.”

Throughout the history of Black Mirror, audiences have largely seen ways in which technology and culture have intertwined with each other in realistic and frightening ways, imagining a world where believable technologies have been embraced to an unsettling degree. Whether it be a politician being blackmailed into committing immoral sexual acts on live TV or a device that could entirely erase someone from your memory or a comatose musician’s consciousness being embedded into a hit-making algorithm, each installment eerily predicts ways in which technology could be manipulated in the not-too-distant future.

Despite the upcoming project being a mockumentary, we shouldn’t anticipate quite as bleak a reflection of the year’s events, as Brooker shared earlier this year that he had taken a break from working on a sixth season of Black Mirror because the world was already too bleak.

“I’ve been busy doing things,” Brooker shared with Radio Times this past May. “I don’t know what I can say about what I’m doing and not doing. 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]. I’m sort of keen to revisit my comic skill set, so I’ve been writing scripts aimed at making myself laugh.”

Stay tuned for details on Brooker’s new documentary as well as on a new season of Black Mirror.

Are you interested in the new project? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!