USS Callister director Toby Haynes hopes to complete the trilogy

The seventh season of the anthology series Black Mirror dropped onto the Netflix streaming service earlier this month – and among its six episodes, for the first time in Black Mirror history, there was a sequel! The season 7 episode USS Callister: Into Infinity is a follow-up to the popular season 4 episode USS Callister, and Toby Haynes, who directed both of the USS Callister episodes, has revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that he’s hoping to make this a trilogy!

Created and written by Charlie Brooker, Black Mirror is an anthology series that taps into our collective unease with the modern world, with each stand-alone episode a sharp, suspenseful tale exploring themes of contemporary techno-paranoia leading to an unforgettable – and sometimes unsettling – conclusion. Without questioning it, technology has transformed all aspects of our lives; in every home; on every desk; in every palm – a plasma screen; a monitor; a Smartphone – a Black Mirror reflecting our 21st Century existence back at us.

Haynes confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that there had been talk about turning USS Callister into its own spin-off series, but now that they made a feature-length sequel episode instead, he’s looking forward to getting the chance to make a third USS Callister movie / episode. He said, “I was talking about [a follow-up] as soon as we finished the first one. I said to Charlie, ‘We’ve made the best sci-fi pilot for a show that doesn’t exist. We’ve sort of done an undercover pilot, why don’t we just go straight into a series?’ And he said, ‘Oh, you know, people have talked to me before about spinning off episodes and I’ve never wanted to do it. I like to do fresh ideas.’ But me and Louise Sutton, who produced that one, kept coming up with ideas and badgering Charlie. Charlie likes to come up with his own stuff, because he’s a genius. But I think by us badgering him, he very quickly saw the scope of what could be done and he started work on it. I think they first talked to me about doing a season of Callister back when I was doing Andor. That was the first time it’d sort of become real.” That was at the end of 2020, and by 2023 it was looking like Haynes, Brooker, and executive producer Jessica Rhoades would be moving ahead with a USS Callister series. “Then it was the actors strike — so it all fell apart! We were literally about to start what was going to be a Callister series. I think [Rhoades] used that time [during the strikes], knowing everyone’s limited availability, to figure out, ‘How do we make this happen in a way that can get everybody back?’ And then it became a single film. That’s when it got really exciting for me. One film is a sequel. It’s not a series, and it kind of elevates the whole thing into the perfect format for a sci-fi adventure. We could be making our own, I’d like to say, iconic sci-fi trilogy within the Black Mirror world. And what could be better? It’s so exciting. If we do another one! I’d like to make good on the trilogy. This was our chance to do Empire Strikes Back or Aliens or even Terminator 2. If we were going to come back, how do we upgrade? There are so many sequels that miss the mark in sci-fi, but there are a few that really hit the mark. How do we be the ones that really justify a sequel by making it bigger, better, more exciting, funnier, more emotional, upgrade the effects. Everything was a huge amount of pressure to try to deliver something special. … What I was nervous about with it being a series was, would it be watered down what was a really neat mini-movie? Coming back and making it as a single film elevates the whole piece into a movie series, which is where great sci-fi belongs, isn’t it?” To read more of what Haynes had to say, click over to The Hollywood Reporter.

Directed by Toby Haynes from a script written by William Bridges and Brooker, the season 4 USS Callister episode told the story of a gaming company’s CTO. He is the mastermind behind a popular multiplayer game and has a private copy of it, which he uses to torment his colleagues who fail to show him respect in the office. The episode had a running time of 76 minutes and starred Jesse Plemons, Cristin Milioti, Billy Magnussen, Jimmi Simpson, Michaela Coel, Milanka Brooks, Osy Ikhile, Paul G. Raymond, Hammed Animashaun, Tom Mulheron, and Aaron Paul. Here’s the information on USS Callister: Into Infinity: (88 minutes), starring Cristin Milioti (Nanette Cole), Jimmi Simpson (James Walton), Billy Magnussen (Karl Plowman), Osy Ikhile (Nate Packer), Milanka Brooks (Elena Tulaska), Paul G. Raymond (Kabir Dudani) and directed by Toby Haynes. Written by Brooker, Bisha K. Ali, William Bridges and Bekka Bowling. Synopsis: Robert Daly is dead, but now the crew of the USS Callister – led by Captain Nanette Cole – are stranded in an infinite virtual universe, fighting for survival against 30 million players.

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