Back To Black (Mirror): Will Charlie Brooker Write A 'San Junipero' Sequel For 'Black Mirror'?

When you think of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror, you hardly think of romance and rainbows, do you? That being said, there was one episode in Netflix's revamped Season 3 that threw the substantial instruction manual out the window and download itself into a special place in our hearts. With its '80s soundtrack and feel-good vibes, "San Junipero" was a rare happy ending in the world of pig f*cking and hidden pedophiles. However, with the whole premise being about death and life after death, it was still equally macabre in its own #BlackMirror way.

Flying the flag for LGBT representation and scooping two of the show's first three Emmy nominations, many have asked whether we could return to the beach party town and pick up with Kelly and Yorkie's blissful new life. Now, we have the answer straight from the horse's mouth.

Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall

Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, creator #CharlieBrooker revealed what our chances of sticking on a pair of dungarees and going back for some California dreaming are. Safe to say, it doesn't look too promising:

“That felt like such a story and we wouldn’t want to open it up again."

With "San Junipero" having the whole time travel element, there are more than enough budding Kelly and Yorkies out there to explore, but it sadly looks unlikely that we will revisit these two. Brooker did tease that if the show went back, it would likely be “in a completely different form" to the original format. You can easily imagine a jazzy '30s vibe or some swinging '60s, but could it really compare to that pastel haze of the '80s?

Given that Season 3 of the dystopian tech thriller had ups and downs, "San Junipero" was easily a highlight of the run. With Brooker managing to weave each horror yarn in a fixed time, it is quite hard to go back over the previous years of Black Mirror and find many stories that would warrant a sequel. Interestingly though, it turns out that Brooker wrote "San Junipero" with a particular aim to break the Black Mirror mould:

"It was the first episode I wrote for Season 3 and it was a conscious effort to blow up what I thought a 'Black Mirror' episode was."

He did also open up about one scene cut from "San Junipero" that sounds a lot more Black Mirror than the finished article we got on our screens:

“There were aspects of the story that I took out. For instance, I’d originally written a scene where Gugu’s character, Kelly, is in a kindergarten and there are children there and when you realize what’s going on, it’s that these are deceased children. It was too sad and too poignant of a note to hit in that story, but I kept thinking about how that felt like a whole world in and of itself.”

Whether it was those sunny California shores or the sounds of Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven Is a Place on Earth," something about "San Junipero" stood out against the grey backdrop of the rest of the sinister episodes. Whether or not the upcoming Season 4 can top such a winning storyline remains to be seen, but maybe Mr. Brooker has learned that breaking the mirror may not just cause seven years bad luck.