Netflix releases a trailer for ‘Bandersnatch,’ the mysterious new episode of ‘Black Mirror’

What the heck is “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch”? It’s probably not just a regular episode of the critically acclaimed science fiction anthology series. Netflix has been pretty cryptic about it, only announcing its existence last week, ahead of a December 28 release. Given the reported 5 hour, 12 minute runtime, “Bandersnatch” may be the choose-your-own-adventure episode that we know was in the works — in that case, it wouldn’t actually take that hours and hours to watch, but instead would incorporate multiple paths totaling five hours of footage. Today, Netflix released a trailer for what it’s describing as “a Black Mirror event.” The story takes place in 1984 and focuses on a programmer (Fionn Whitehead) adapting a fantasy novel into a computer game. The trailer doesn’t quite come out and say that this will be an interactive episode, but the subject matter and the tagline (“change your mind — change your life — change your past — your present — your future”) seem to be awfully suggestive. And we won’t have to wait much longer to find out: Netflix says “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch” goes live tomorrow.