Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror has become a phenomenon on Netflix

The seventh instalment of Black Mirror is set to drop later this week on April 10, offering fans six fresh episodes to devour.

As always, a host of big names will feature in the tech-tinged tales, including Dame Harriet Walter, Peter Capaldi, Paul Giamatti, Issa Rae, Emma Corrin, Rashida Jones and Awkwafina, among others.

The upcoming season promises an abundance of Easter eggs as the Black Mirror universe continues to grow, along with the eagerly-awaited sequel to 2017’s USS Callister, reports the Express.

USS Callister: Into Infinity remains a heartfelt homage to Star Trek, space opera and sci-fi shows, with the narrative picking up from where the fourth season episode concluded.

Viewers can look forward to another episode titled Plaything, which ties into the interactive, choose-your-own-adventure episode Bandersnatch, with Will Poulter and Asim Chaudhry returning to the scene.

The show will once again offer a blend of genres, ranging from romance to tragedy to comedy to deeply unsettling, and everything in between.

Netflix is now the home of Charlie Brooker’s dark sci-fi series Black Mirror. The show first aired on Channel 4 back in 2011 with the ominously-titled The National Anthem, which depicted a fictional prime minister being blackmailed into performing a lewd act with a pig live on television, in return for the safe release of a princess.

Black Mirror, which initially aired for two seasons on a UK broadcaster along with a Christmas special, made its big move to Netflix in 2016. The third season of the show premiered globally on the streaming giant, propelling the series to astronomical success.

Since its transition to Netflix, Black Mirror has bagged numerous awards including Primetime Emmy Awards and BAFTA Film nominations.

The shift to Netflix also led to an increase in the number of episodes per season from three to six.

In 2018, Black Mirror revolutionised television when Netflix released an interactive episode titled Bandersnatch, allowing viewers to dictate the narrative direction of the story.

Despite its continued success and intriguing narratives, many wonder why the show switched broadcasters.

So, why did Black Mirror move from Channel 4 to Netflix?

Executive producers Brooker and Annabel Jones shed light on the change in broadcasters in the show’s companion book, Inside Black Mirror.

According to them, Channel 4 expressed interest in producing more Black Mirror in December 2014.

However, due to the high costs associated with anthology series, the show would have to be a co-production with another broadcaster moving forward. Jones mentioned that Channel 4 had previously stated this, and the producers had attempted to strike a deal in LA but were unsuccessful.

Channel 4 dropped a bombshell on the duo, revealing plans for a new sci-fi anthology series titled Electric Dreams, featuring Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston and inspired by Philip K. Dick’s works.

Brooker shared his disbelief: “They’ve just told me they couldn’t afford to do our show, but what they were doing sounded conceptually similar.

“I couldn’t believe it. I remember coming out of there, looking at Annabel and she was furious. And upset.”

Jones expressed her distress, saying: “I don’t often get upset, but there were actual tears from me.

“They’d basically told Charlie his show was going to be cancelled, an hour before he went out to do a big press meeting.

“And they were replacing it with another sci-fi anthology show that looked to us even more expensive to produce, with more episodes and probably filming overseas.”

Describing the ordeal as “very depressing”, Brooker recounted how they felt their show Black Mirror had hit a dead end.

“We were absolutely convinced that this was the end of Black Mirror,” he said.

Yet, fortune took a turn when Black Mirror’s initial series hit Netflix in the US and skyrocketed in popularity.

“Everyone was talking about it. We were being contacted by all the networks. Suddenly there was going to be a bidding war,” Jones revealed.

By January of the subsequent year, Brooker and Jones were in the driver’s seat, weighing their options on which network to pair with for a co-production alongside Channel 4.

Jones disclosed: “Netflix were showing Black Mirror and it had gone huge for them. So they led the bidding war offering us a commitment to two seasons, each with 10 episodes. They said: ‘You’re green-lit; don’t present us with any ideas, just start.'”.

While there were initial conversations about a co-production between Channel 4 and Netflix, this concept fell by the wayside as the duo chose to proceed with the streaming giant, and thus the course was altered forever.

Jones also mentioned: “You can see why from the outside, it looks like the Americans came in waving a load of dollar bills around and we all jumped. It wasn’t that at all.

“But once again, I do have to say that if it wasn’t for Jay Hunt and Channel 4, Black Mirror would never have existed.”

Express.co.uk approached Channel 4 for comment on this story.

Black Mirror season 7 premieres on Netflix on April 10