Picture: Netflix
Netflix is preparing to remove its final two interactive specials from the platform. Over the past few days, removal notices have appeared on Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend, confirming both will be leaving the service globally on May 12th, 2025. Their departure will mark the end of Netflix’s era of interactive stories as it transitions to Cloud and mobile gaming exclusively.
Netflix has now been slowly phasing out its interactive specials, which it officially discontinued in mid-2023, with a focus shifting to mobile and cloud gaming. All but four Netflix Original interactive specials were removed in late 2024, with Ranveer vs Wild with Bear Grylls and You vs. Wild removed in January of this year.
That left two interactive specials: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018) and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend (2020). Both of which are now due to depart.
Released in December 2018, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch was undoubtedly the most significant swing Netflix ever did with its interactive technology. Starring Fionn Whitehead alongside Will Poulter and Craig Parkinson, the special followed a young programmer in 1984 developing a game that had multiple branching paths with many endings and meta moments. It has a runtime of roughly 1 hour and 30 minutes, although significantly more if you want to unlock all the various endings.
Released in May 2020, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend was a highly unexpected interactive special coming after the main show had wrapped up after four seasons. The synopsis for the special reads, “Kimmy’s getting married, but first she has to foil the Reverend’s evil plot. It’s your move: What should she do next?”
The removals come as Netflix is expected to officially roll out its new redesign across multiple devices in the coming days and weeks. Testing began last year for this new UI overhaul with the original intention of doing a global launch late last year. As we reported, among others, there was a lot of negative feedback for the new redesign. The redesign is still in testing today, and given the comments and emails I continue to get, we’ll see what changes have been made and if substantial improvements can be made because many are not fans. As part of this redesign, interactive special technology is being phased out entirely, hence the removal of all the specials.
Bandersnatch leaving Netflix comes a month after season 7 of the show returned, and with it, a sequel or sort of sequel to Bandersnatch. Episode 4, titled Plaything, Will Poulter reprised his role as Colin Ritman for the new episode, and Asim Chaudhary reprised his role as Mo.
What’ll be interesting is whether these specials, or any others that have departed, will be re-engineered like the Bear Grylls ones that have recently been re-released on Netflix as linear movies/episodes. Their format works slightly better for linear, given that the branching trees often led to the same outcome, but it still feels a bit janky to watch now. Bandersnatch, in particular, was infinitely more complex and would be very hard to port over unless it were in a multi-episode series. Unfortunately, that would erase what made it special.
We should note that an active community on Discord is seeking to preserve the interactive technology and movies/series that were released, called The Netflix Interactive Archive.
Are you disappointed Netflix is removing Black Mirror: Bandersnatch or Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend? Let us know in the comments down below.
