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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Jacob Stolworthy

Black Mirror Bandersnatch trailer: Netflix confirms release date for new 80s-inspired film

Netflix has released a trailer forBlack Mirror: Bandersnatch, which confirms it’ll arrive very soon.

The new outing – a feature-length original film – will debut on the streaming service tomorrow (28 December). Dunkirk star Fionn Whitehead, Will Poulter and Asim Chaudhry (People Just Do Nothing) will all star.

A leaked synopsis for the film reads: “A young programmer makes a fantasy novel into a game. Soon, reality and virtual world are mixed and start to create confusion.”

The trailer confirms theories that Bandersnatch will be an 1980s set adventure, thanks to its choice of song: Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s 1984 classic, “Relax”.

One Twitter user shed some light on the film’s title, stating that Bandersnatch was a video game based on a book that, after being developed in 1984, never saw the light of day.

Going by the trailer, the film will imagine that the game got abandoned for some rather disturbing reasons. “Is he that bloke who went cuckoo and cut his wife’s head off?” one characters asks, when talking about the fictional author of Bandersnatch.

Bandersnatch is heavily expected to be the previously reported choose-your-own adventure that allows viewers to interactively dictate events.

Backing this up is IndieWire, which reports that more than five hours worth of footage has been filmed for the outing. Intriguingly, the film’s Netflix page lists its running time as 90 minutes. 

Fans have also recalled that Bandersnatch was a video game featured in series three episode, “Playtest”.

The show’s fourth series dropped in December 2017 and featured episodes including “USS Callister”, “Hang the DJ” and “Black Museum”. It is currently unknown when series five will air, but episodes are expected to drop in 2019.

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