Samuel L. Jackson, Lisa Kudrow, and More Join Netflix’s ‘Death to 2020’ from ‘Black Mirror’s Charlie Brooker

We finally know how Black Mirror’s creators are going to immortalize this garbage year. After weeks of secretive news releases and mysterious ads, Netflix has dropped the first trailer for Death to 2020. And we’re in for a comedy special, people.
The news of Charlie Brooker‘s new mockumentary was first revealed in late November. Back then all we knew about the project was that Hugh Grant was attached and that he would be playing a “repellent” historian who was being interviewed about 2020. Now it seems that this new project will be much bigger than just Hugh Grant.
Netflix’s first teaser for the comedy special showcased its impressive cast list. In addition to Grant, Samuel L. Jackson, Lisa Kudrow, Kumail Nanjiani, Tracey Ullman, Samson Kayo, Leslie Jones, Diane Morgan, Cristin Milioti, and Joe Keery are all set to be part of the special. That’s a whole lot of talent. Even more interestingly that list includes a couple of stars who have worked with Brooker before, something the creator typically avoids when it comes to his technology anthology series. Cristin Milioti shined as the lead in Black Mirror‘s “USS Callister,” and Diane Morgan was a major part of the creator’s old show, Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe. The mockumentary will be executive produced by Brooker and his longtime creative partner Annabel Jones and produced by Alison Marlow.
We even have a clue what this mysterious new special will be about thanks to a press release from Netflix:

2020: A year so [insert adjective of choice here], even the creators of Black Mirror couldn’t make it up… but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a little something to add. Death to 2020 is a comedy event that tells the story of the dreadful year that was — and perhaps still is? This landmark documentary-style special weaves together some of the world’s most (fictitious) renowned voices with real-life archival footage spanning the past 12 months.

As exciting as it is to know this cast list and description is, that’s about all we know. We don’t even have a release date yet. All that we know is that this new installment will be “coming soon” or even “too soon?” Black Mirror has had a history of surprise drops since coming to Netflix. Remember two years ago when the streaming giant shocked us all with the interactive Bandersnatch three days after Christmas? It’s very possible that Death to 2020 may follow the same trend.

Though we don’t know much about this special, we know a bit more about Black Mirror‘s future. Brooker has noted that he hasn’t been working on Season 6 because of the darkness of our current reality. “At the moment, I don’t know what stomach there would be for stories about societies falling apart,” Brooker told Radio Times. “So I’m not working away on any of those [Black Mirror episodes].” Here’s hoping life will get a bit brighter for all of our sakes.