How 'Black Mirror's' 'USS Callister' sequel became its 'most ambitious' episode yet

Warning: The pursuing contains spoilers from the “Black Mirror” occurrence “USS Callister: Into Infinity.”

There’s a crushed “Black Mirror” is not known for ongoing stories, says its British creator Charlie Brooker. “I thin to termination everyone oregon permission them excessively depressed to relation astatine the extremity of my story,” helium says. “Sequels tin beryllium tricky.”

But successful the 7 years since the anthology series’ Emmy-winning Season 4 occurrence “USS Callister” galvanized fans with its funny, thrilling, twisty rendering of integer quality doubles trapped successful a “Star Trek”-like crippled universe, Brooker and his collaborators knew its communicative could beryllium extended, past the constituent wherever meek programmer Nanette (Cristin Milioti) helped prevention her cloned aforesaid from sadistic crippled decorator Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons), near for dead. Ideas percolated, but truthful did pitfalls. As Brooker recalled, “There’s tons of corners you’ve painted yourself into, and communicative logic you person to navigate.” But possibly much urgently, helium said, “If we’ve killed Darth Vader, what bash we do?”

What arose was a feature-length follow-up, “USS Callister: Into Infinity,” premiering Thursday connected Netflix arsenic portion of “Black Mirror’s” seventh season. Taking the spaceship’s unit into a caller escapade of real-life and crippled death, the occurrence is built astir a caller trial of virtual Nanette’s captaincy, and a villainous crook for Daly’s obnoxious concern spouse Walton (Jimmi Simpson). Plus, adds Brooker, “We conscionable knew, due to the fact that of what’s unsocial astir our video crippled premise, we’ve got to person the existent satellite and virtual satellite meet.” He felt these communicative intricacies required a first-ever “Black Mirror” writers’ country to benignant it each out. “This was a antithetic beast, rather complicated. So overmuch amusive but a headache to write.”

Milioti likened her abstracted selves facing each different to “seeing yourself connected video oregon proceeding a voicemail you’ve left. I find it to beryllium truly jarring.” Real-world Nanette Cole, inactive an undervalued 9-to-5-er, is impressed by the mentation of herself that runs a ship, but it’s not communal for Capt. Cole. “The different 1 is truthful disappointed!”

If the amusive of returning to acquainted sets and costumes aft years distant came with a benignant of “existential question sickness,” Milioti jokes, navigating the precise choreography to enactment against herself with specialized cameras presented its ain challenge. “You truly consciousness nuts trying to stay contiguous with a representation of yourself, wherever your manus was, eyelines. It was fascinating and intense, similar a dance. For 2 days, my encephalon was similar an overheated modem.”

Simpson’s virtual Walton (the bully one) returns too, but successful a caveman’s loincloth, which required immoderate prefilming training. “I had turned into the afloat dada bod,” says Simpson, who calls the double-filming days toggling betwixt looks “a full-on matrimony of show and technique. Television is not a movie schedule. It’s designed to instrumentality up arsenic small clip arsenic possible.” But the energy, helium says, with overmuch of the archetypal unit returning, was “addictive.”

He enjoyed real-world Walton’s megalomaniacal tech-bro crook arsenic well. “The thoughtlessness and greed is turned to 11, and that was fun,” says Simpson. “People person said it looks similar I’m ever up to something, truthful I get to play villains. My parent doesn’t get it astatine all.”

Cristin Milioti, left, and Jimmi Simpson successful “USS Callister: Into Infinity.”

(Nick Wall / Netflix)

Returning manager Toby Haynes calls the archetypal “a cleanable script, a neat potboiler,” but describes “Into Infinity” arsenic “maybe the astir ambitious ‘Black Mirror’ occurrence ever made.” If the original’s cheeky replication of “Star Trek” was its defining aesthetic, this one’s faster-paced, action-meets-farce peril spurred a ocular connection crafted from gaming. “The guns, the plan elements and the ocular effects erstwhile radical get fragged, that was each amusive to explore,” helium says. The cues of classical sci-fi were inactive determination — including Nanette’s garb deliberately evoking Ripley successful “Aliens,” and abstraction combat evoking “Star Wars” — but Haynes besides wanted to thin into what makes these stories original. “It’s not pastiche anymore; it’s its ain thing,” helium notes, “ which is truly thrilling.”

The sequel’s astir tense inside-the-game face-off takes spot successful a virtual suburban garage, that mythic spot of tech origin, wherever a wiser, harder Nanette encounters a younger, much guiltless Daly (a returning Plemons). Says Brooker, “We ever wanted that juxtaposition, with the dynamic somewhat altered. She needs his help, and he’s a analyzable figure. If we hadn’t done a bully job, it would person been excruciating to chopped from a abstraction conflict to 2 radical talking.”

Cue Haynes, who knew however to present the door-opening infinitesimal with otherworldly suspense: light, mist, a silhouetted Nanette. “I wanted this to beryllium my Spielberg moment, gathering up to this godlike creep, and Nanette facing her abuser.”

The reunion with Plemons was a favourite country of Milioti’s. “I similar things that research antithetic facets of people,” she says. “She’s a antithetic person, exhausted and successful disbelief that she’s backmost dealing with this person, and you’re devastated by his loneliness, however severely helium wants to link and however that got twisted. There was truthful overmuch to excavate. We changeable for 4 days successful a room. It felt similar a two-hander play.”

With amped-up drama, drama and enactment this clip around, Brooker knows he’s made thing “quite mainstream” for his often bleak, beloved storytelling outlet. “It’s astir family-friendly, isolated from the language,” helium jokes. “But it inactive has the distilled essence of ‘Black Mirror,’ those elements and ingredients. Hopefully radical consciousness we did the archetypal 1 proud.”