Pop culture projects in cinema, videogames, and beyond are constantly borrowing ideas and thriving off inspiration from one another to establish new material for fans to feast on. Charlie Brooker, the creator of the hit British series, Black Mirror, recently cited a few popular game franchises that inspired several episodes, includingGrand Theft Auto.
The sixth installment of theRockstar Gamesseries may be a year away, but gamers believenew screenshotsare coming soon. Featured in a currently-running Scottish games exhibition, the studio head believed Rockstar was“making the future”of videogames. However, franchises of this caliber also have a hand in influencing television creation.
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In an interview withBAFTA, Brooker listed a handful of popular games that were part of the brainstorming process in developing staple episodes for Black Mirror. The series ran for two seasons on the British network Channel 4 before moving toNetflixto host a further four seasons, and the show is set to return to the streaming service in 2025 for a seventh run.
The creator opened the chat by saying quite a few Black Mirror episodes were “almost directly inspired by games” and often in ways audiences might not expect, including “Playtest” from Season 3, which follows Cooper (Wyatt Russell) who tests an augmented reality horror game designed to exploit his fears. In addition to an idea Brooker had for an AR Whac-A-Mole game, this story was heavily inspired byResident Evil, playing off the haunted-house theme.
Quite possibly the show’s most popular episode, “San Junipero” (also from the third season), framed Yorkie (Mackenzie Davis) and Kelly’s (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) romance within a simulated reality, and Brooker revealed this 80s setting drew inspiration from the Grand Theft Auto franchise, particularlyVice City, sharing both projects’ sandbox world.
Lastly, Brooker highlighted “Striking Vipers” from the show’s fifth season, which pitted Danny (Anthony Mackie) and Karl (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) against each other in a virtual realityfighting game, that preceded their digital romance. The creator shared the rather obvious environmental connection to theTekkenandStreet Fighterseries, with Japanese-styled designs.
Gamers and fans of the show shared their comments on this insight, and one onlooker was under the impression Brooker perhaps wanted to do game design before falling into his television career. Others heavily implied that the Black Mirror series desperately needed a mixed-reality video game to expand the concept.
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