Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for Black Mirror Season 7.
With each new season ofBlack Mirror, you never know what to expect.Charlie Brooker’s sci-fi anthology series has found ways to either outdo itself or redefine what we think we knowBlack Mirrorto be — and yet the creator and writer has never made an explicit sequel episode, until now. Season 7’s premiere brings with it a follow-up to Season 4’s “USS Callister,” which put a dark twist on classic sci-fi shows like the original Star Trek in the way onlyBlack Mirrorcould. This year’s sequel, “USS Callister: Into Infinity,” written by Brooker alongsideBisha K. Ali,William Bridges, andBekka Bowling, directed byToby Haynes, and starringCristin Milioti,Jimmi Simpson, and more, manages to be bigger and more epic than its predecessor, as it picks up from where we last left off, with a crew of digital clones who are now forced to fight for their existence inside an online multiplayer game.
Ahead of the premiere of Season 7, Collider had the opportunity to speak with several cast and creatives, including Milioti. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, the actress behind Nanette Cole (both versions!) discusses how long a “USS Callister” sequel has been in the works, what proved most difficult about essentially acting opposite herself, why she enjoyed reuniting withJesse Plemons, who makes a surprise return as Robert Daly in “Into Infinity,” and more.
COLLIDER: When I spoke with Charlie [Brooker] last summer, we were chatting about a sequel to “USS Callister,” and one of the things that he mentioned was that part of the reason this was in development for a bit was making sure that all the stars aligned and that the band could get back together, so to speak. When did you start hearing rumblings that this was really going to happen?
CRISTIN MILIOTI: Charlie and I had been in touch for years, and as he’s told you,it almost came together a couple of different times and then couldn’tfor a bunch of different reasons. But I think the first time that I was like, “Oh, this is actually happening. We have dates, and it’s happening,” was, like, 2023. It was right before the strikes.
Acting Opposite Herself in “USS Callister: Into Infinity” Was Challenging for Cristin Milioti
In “USS Callister,” you’re obviously playing two different versions, but cut from the same cloth. Then these versions of Nanette become their own individual person. In this episode, the two come face-to-face inside the game. Was there a challenge in having to act against yourself when the two Nanettes meet?
MILIOTI: Yes. There were a bunch of different challenges with it. One was trying to differentiate them in a way that seemed real, because not that much time has passed, but they’ve both been on such intense journeys.How would they lean more into themselves?With Nanette in the real world, something I attempted was that this is someone who was not sleeping and is wracked by, “Am I going to be charged with this murder? Did I kill him? What on earth has happened to the people who blackmailed me? What else do they have?” It’s like “The Tell-Tale Heart.” She’s like a shell of a person, and so I think, in many ways, she’s gotten meeker because she’s just barely holding on.
Then you have Nanette in the virtual world, who’s almost getting killed every day and went through all the crazy stuff from the first episode, and then lost a crew member. How does it make that person, how does it harden them?I was really concerned with differentiating them in a way that seemed grounded and real. Then there was this very specific camera that we had to use to shoot those scenes that was absolutely mind-bending in terms of technicianship, but it was very cool.
‘Black Mirror’s Charlie Brooker and Jessica Rhoades Answer All Our Spoiler Questions About Season 7, From Surprising Cameos To Easter Eggs
They also discuss why the “USS Callister” sequel is even longer than the first, bringing back Will Poulter’s Colin Ritman, and more.
Like a real piece ofBlack Mirrortechnology, in a way.
MILIOTI: Kind of. It was this giant camera on this really big arm, and you had to match things perfectly to what you’d done earlier. Sometimes I was with a double, who I would get to do the scene with, but then other times she couldn’t be there, so it was like a series of 100 dots to look at, and I had to match each dot. It was nuts, but it was so cool.
Cristin Milioti Discusses Her Big Reunion With Jesse Plemons in “USS Callister: Into Infinity”
There are so many great scenes in this episode that I could talk about, but one of them that is really a standout is when Nanette finally gets into the heart of Infinity. You get to bounce off of Jesse [Plemons] again. I did want to ask you about that experience, because honestly, that “copy-and-paste” moment is something that’s been rattling around in my brain since I watched that episode.
MILIOTI: It was so great to see them together. First of all, just selfishly, to get to act with Jesse again and be reunited as two actors, but also to see those characters again in such a different way.There are so many similarities that occuragain, like how she has to calibrate knowing who she’s dealing with versus that he’s the purest version of himself, which also gets corrupted by loneliness and isolation and all the things that happened to him in the future. There are so many different levels.
Then you’re in that weird…I thought that was such a cool idea that the center of this universe would be this sad little garage. It felt like such a special way of portraying that. It felt so true and also was so cinematic the way I discover it, with the door opening with the light. I loved it. I thought that was so cool. I loved filming that scene.
Given where the episode ends with Callister and Nanette essentially being fused into one being, it feels like it could set upBlack Mirror’s first trilogy. Would you be open to returning for a “Callister” 3, if Charlie had an idea and the opportunity came?
MILIOTI: Yeah. It would all depend on Charlie and what he wants to do with it, and if the idea spoke to him, but, yeah,it definitely does leave a twisted, demented door cracked open, which is hard not to love.
