‘Black Mirror’ Season 3 Updates: Creator Charlie Brooker Addresses Theories of Shared Universe in Episodes, Admits Presence of “Easter Eggs”

‘Black Mirror’ season 3’s episodes are speculated to be connected to one another but series creator Charlie Brooker addressed these theories denying that they belong in a “shared universe.” He did admit that he was fond of putting in “Easter eggs” for pure enjoyment.

During an interview with Huffington Post, Brooker revealed that the individual episodes in his science-fiction anthology series had no connection with one another. He said, “There’s no real link between [the episodes]… Having said that, sometimes, just to f*ck with people, we have got an explicit link between them.”

Brooker explained, “The Easter eggs is a thing I enjoy, we have fun doing them… Sometimes it would come about because it’s like, ‘Ah sh*t, we’ve got to put something on the TV screen here, how are we going to clear some footage? Oh — let’s use the footage from “Fifteen Million Merits” [a previous episode].’ So sometimes, it’s practical.”

He added, “I don’t put any mind, really, to thinking this is a shared universe.” Each episode of the anthology series has a different story in terms of genre, setting, and theme.

The series managed to climb to the fourth spot of the “Most Popular TV Series” list on IMDB as of November 15. Since season 1’s premiere on Britain’s Channel 4 in 2011, the series was deemed innovative and shocking with twists reminiscent of the American anthology series ‘The Twilight Zone.’ It earned an International Emmy Award for Best TV Movie/Miniseries on November 2012.

Season 2 aired was broadcasted on Channel 4 on February 2013 before being picked up by Netflix for a third season. Netflix commissioned ‘Black Mirror’ for a third season on September 2015. It was then released worldwide on October 21, 2016.

Season 3’s first episode, entitled “Nosedive”, starred Bryce Dallas Howard and Alice Eve. The episode followed a woman named Lacie Pound, who was obsessed with social media - specifically a human-rating app that dictates someone’s status in the public eye. In her pursuit to get higher ratings, she gets into trouble and goes on a downward spiral.

When asked how close to reality the story on episode 1 was during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Howard admitted, “It could absolutely happen, it is happening already with Uber and Airbnb and Yelp. These tools, oftentimes, they serve us until we become a slave to it. That doesn’t mean forgo it completely, but it's ultimately about that impossible balance we’re all striving for.”

She continued, “We’re figuring out social media and what it means and what it is supposed to represent, if there’s value to it or not. There’s a lot of speculation as to what this all does mean, and not just monetarily, but culturally and in terms of relationships with one another and how we communicate.”

‘Black Mirror’ season 3 is currently streaming on Netflix.