Black Mirror ended the year by setting the bar high for the rest of TV to follow in 2019 with its groundbreaking interactive episode “Bandersnatch.” The 90-minute movie allows viewers to alter the narrative by choosing protagonist Stefan Butler’s (Fionn Whitehead) actions, driving him – if they so wish – to murder and insanity.
Perhaps the most interesting character from the episode, though, is Colin Ritman, as played by The Revenant‘s Will Poulter. He’s a video game programmer in the 1980s who – in at least one version of Bandersnatch – believes in the multiple worlds theory. His speeches of differing timelines and seeming awareness of the structure of the film make him an enigmatic, very meta presence, and it seems Colin could return in future episodes.
While speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, creator Charlie Brooker revealed that Colin was the “most time-consuming” part of the writing process for the showrunner, as he believes him to be such an “impactful character.” He even hinted that he imagines Colin returning in future episodes or skulking in the background of previous ones.
“Ostensibly, he could go on forever, because he’s both dead and not dead,” Brooker explained. “I like the idea that he could show up anywhere. I could see him popping up in ‘San Junipero’ or running around in ‘White Bear.'”
“San Junipero” is an interesting installment to mention, as it’s also set in the 1980s – well, kind of. It’s actually a virtual reality version of the decade, a kind of artificial afterlife for data copies of the dead. Could the world of “Bandersnatch” be something similar? Alternatively, “White Bear” is about a child murderer sentenced to a kind of interactive prison for her crimes. A similar fate, in many ways, to Stefan’s in “Bandersnatch.”
It would be a really great idea to have Colin show up in various episodes as a mysterious character who wanders through them just to tie everything together. With any luck, then, Brooker’s planning to capitalize on this concept in the upcoming fifth season of Black Mirror, which we’ve been promised will arrive later on this year.