The new season of Black Mirror is officially underway

"The future will be brighter than ever."

It was announced last month that Black Mirror had been renewed for a fifth season.

Netflix announced the news in a clip that featured some of the previous episodes, before saying that the anthology series would "be right back".

Only...they didn't tell us when.

The future will be brighter than ever. pic.twitter.com/slVeg3VPd7 — Black Mirror (@blackmirror) March 5, 2018



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But it looks like Black Mirror is now set to begin filming, with local reports suggesting it could start as early as today.

According to the Croydon Advertiser, a number of retro-style shopfronts have been spotted on St George's Walk in Croydon.

Letters are reported to have beens sent out by production company Ealing Studios to local residents and business owners, going through the plans to film in the area.

Filming is said to begin on Wednesday, April 25, and will happen again on Friday, April 27.

It is unclear who, or what, they will be filming in the area.

Social media users have been sharing photos of the sets on Twitter, which all look like locations from the 1980s.

Hive of activity at St. George’s Walk Croydon. It’s Christmas at WH Smith. There’s a Wimpy, Chelsea Girl clothes store, FADS DIY Store, Soleil travel agency, Pizza Hut. It’s gone complete 80s #blackmirror pic.twitter.com/jFou1UPh8D — Lee (@CosmicScale) April 24, 2018

1980s @WHSmith - part of the set for @blackmirror round the corner from our gaff in #Croydon - in fact they seem to be creating a whole 80s high street with Chelsea Girl, Wimpy and travel agents. Love it! pic.twitter.com/gAsOFyz4wg — Bugeye (@Bugeyeband) April 24, 2018

. @NetflixUK are filming @blackmirror in Croydon!

They're building 1980s replicas of WH Smith, Wimpy, Pizza Hut and FADS. Who wants some Opal Fruits? pic.twitter.com/hl4HHR9qwq — Rik Moran (@TheRikMoran) April 25, 2018

This showed up in St George’s Walk Croydon today. It’s not an archive pic. It’s kitted out with 70s and 80s music, books etc. Retro shop or film set? pic.twitter.com/Tvkbzn2WRQ — Tim Longhurst (@tim_longhurst) April 22, 2018

Based on the timeline of previous seasons, it's looking likely that we'll see the return of Black Mirror some time late in the year - either 2018 or 2019 (fingers crossed).

It's also unclear how many episodes there will be in the anthology's fifth season.

While seasons 1 and 2 had just three episodes each (and then there was the one-off Christmas special), the straight-to-Netflix episodes were meant to be a 12-episode season.

The 12 episode order later got divided into two separate six episode seasons, so we're remaining hopeful that season 5 will bring just as many eerie tales.