‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’ Almost Had a Cameo From Warren Ellis

Netflix has been knocking it out of the park when it comes to original content recently and the latest Black Mirror choose-your-own-adventure episode, Bandersnatch, is no exception. However, it was recently revealed that the episode could have gone down a little differently (and we don’t mean more alternate endings).

According to Bleeding Cool, a recently blog post from Warren Ellis reveled that the comic-book writer/novelist/screenwriter was originally asked to appear in the episode.

“True story: I was asked to play the role of the mysterious author Jerome F Davies in BLACK MIRROR: BANDERSNATCH. They asked me in late March 2018, for an early April shoot,” Ellis shared.

Unfortunately, the idea of being on the hit show was not worth the short notice and difficult travel plans.

“Three days, and one of the days had not yet been specified. Six hours’ train travel a day to get to the location and back. And I was just too busy with my own show (named the best animated series of 2018 by IGN, and also nominated in their shortlist for best overall television series of the year, thank you IGN) to burn three days, with the possibility that the floating day (the actual filming day) would be one I couldn’t do. Still very grateful to have been asked,” he added.

The animated show Ellis is referring to is Castlevania, the Netflix series that follows a vampire hunter who fights to save their city from an army controlled by Dracula. In addition to being an Executive Producer of the show, Ellis is also credited for writing 12 episodes.

In addition to Castlevania, Ellis is credited for writing the “Extremis” story arc in Iron Man. His other Marvel writing credits include several series such as Astonishing X-Men, Thunderbolts, and Moon Knight. The writer also co-created several comics, including Red and Transmetropolitan.

“So, hey, I was almost ‘that thing you have to look up on a wikipedia page,’ he joked about Bandersnatch.

The role in the episode ended up going to Jeff Minter, “a British video game designer and programmer who often goes by the name Yak.” Minter founded eighties software house Llamasoft and created tons of games which include Gridrunner and Attack of the Mutant Camels.

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch stars Fionn Whitehead, Craig Parkinson, Will Poulter, Alice Lowe, and Asim Chaudhry.

Bandersnatch and Castlevania are both currently streaming on Netflix.