Picture: Netflix
Black Mirror finally returned after a two-year hiatus with a six-episode season, and for the most part, fans agree it was one of the best in recent memory.
Featuring over 80 actors, both big and small, with highlights including Paul Giamatti, Rashida Jones, Chris O’Dowd, Peter Capaldi, among others, plus one sequel and one sort of sequel, season 7 has been our favorite season, especially of the seasons released post-Bandersnatch. If you’ve made your way through all six new episodes, you may be wondering if more is on the way…
Has Netflix Renewed Black Mirror for Season 8 Yet?
Current Renewal Status: Pending
Our Renewal Prediction
Expecting Renewal
Despite a bug and some activity on social media about Netflix teasing an eighth season, the series is currently awaiting official renewal. As we’ve discussed, renewal comes down to viewership and several other factors, including metrics that Netflix deems “member satisfaction,” such as the show’s completion rate.
If we had to guess, we’d suggest that Black Mirror will now go on hiatus for a little while and eventually come back in a few years, which sits more in line with how the series has released since season 5, with Brooker and the team at Broke and Bones working on other projects in the meantime. Fingers crossed, however, it’ll come back even sooner. With Season 7, we actually got word almost a year before Netflix officially renewed the show, with mentions of a project codenamed Haven Green, in addition to news that Netflix was mulling a USS Callister limited series sequel.
Throughout the press tour for season 7, Brooker was asked numerous times about a possible eighth season, and he diplomatically replied each time, with most answers being that he would love to, had plenty more ideas, and the future would ultimately come down to viewership. The Hollywood Reporter’s big interview with the showrunner and executive producer Jessica Rhoades perhaps sums up their sentiment the most. Asked directly about season 8, Brooker says, “That’s down to people watching the show, watching it again, watching it a third time, watching it a fourth time to check that was the right decision. Clicking the double thumbs up, writing to Netflix, saying, “Please recommission this show.” I think that would be the ultimate guide. But I mean, it’s such a fun job that I’d love to keep exploring.” In another interview with the very same outlet, he said, “I’m in it for the long haul. I’m not going anywhere.”
Brooker has also spoken about a potential spin-off. We’re referring to Red Mirror, which was first introduced in season 6 and serves as a more of a horror offshoot to Black Mirror. Demon 79 was the episode in question, and it featured Gaap and Nida (both of whom appeared as an Easter Egg in the USS Callister sequel, by the way!). Brooker has suggested that he’d like to explore that world more. When asked about the possibility of the spin-off during a Q&A session in the run-up to season 6, Brooker said, “You know, I really, I think, like, I would love to do more, but I think I’d clearly delineate them as Red Mirror, which they are actually very clearly delineated now. So, yes, I think so. But I think that would be its own sort of own bit of the Venn diagram.”
The most recent comments from Brooker were shared on The News Agents podcast, hosted by Emily Maitlis and Lewis Goodall, and published on April 25th. “A new series hasn’t been commissioned yet,” Brooker tells the hosts, echoing previous sentiments that he’s got plenty more ideas, “I’d love to keep doing it… I’d like to [keep going].”
Of course, Netflix will continue to work with Broke & Bones beyond Black Mirror, given that they work with the streamer under an overall deal and own part of the company. Beyond Black Mirror, the production company delivered the 2021 comedy special “Attack of the Hollywood Cliches!“, two editions of “Death to”, and Cunk on Earth and Cunk on Life. They also worked on the 2022 interactive special, “Cat Burglar,” which was sadly removed from the service. Most recently, they delivered the excellent multipart series, Toxic Town.
How well has Black Mirror season 7 performed on Netflix?
Given that the Netflix top 10s have only existed since 2020, we don’t have much data about the launches of any prior seasons beyond external tools like Google Trends. We do have some more recent viewership thanks to the top 10s. As of three weeks after the Season 7 release, the series has garnered 137.10 million viewing hours globally, equivalent to 22.2 million views. We also know it’s ranked in all 90 tracked countries on Netflix, too, and has shown pretty strong resilience so far.
Comparing it to season 6, which spent four weeks in the top 10, we know that after three weeks, views on season 7 are down about 20% from season 6, which is a pretty solid hold for a show now in its seventh season. Let’s plot that out over a couple of graphs.
Looking at Google Trends, it certainly seems like the series peaked around the time of season 4 in terms of search interest, although season 7 is keeping pace with seasons 5 and 6 so far.
Google Trends for Black Mirror
Are you hoping Black Mirror comes back for a season 8? Would you like to see a Red Mirror spin-off season? Sound off in the comments.
