Last week, Netflix announced they would be releasing a series of three short films as a spin-off of its acclaimed sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror. The shorts, which were to be released under the umbrella title of Little Black Mirror, will now be known as Stories From Our Future. Read more about them below, including where and when you’ll be able to see them.



These Stories From Our Future shorts were originally set to be published on YouTube on May 26, June 2 and June 6. But according to Variety, their release has been delayed until June 10, 2019; that way, fans will have time to watch the new season of Black Mirror when it arrives on Netflix on June 5. The three new Stories From Our Future entries will be published simultaneously across the YouTube channels of content creators Rudy Mancuso, Lele Pons, and Juanpa Zurita. Mancuso directed and scored all three shorts, and those three creators star in them alongside Anwar Jibawi, Maia Mitchell, and Hannah Stocking.

Netflix previously described these as “three mini stories connected to the universe of this acclaimed series,” but with this rebranding, it’s unclear if that connection is still meant to be explicit. The trailer has now been removed from YouTube, and Variety’s latest report says the shorts, which are aimed at Spanish-speaking audiences, “are inspired by fan homages” to Black Mirror.

With the success of Bandersnatch, the Black Mirror interactive film experience that debuted last year, it makes sense that the streaming service would want to continue to use this particular show as a jumping-off point for technological innovations and tie-ins, but I wonder if someone at Netflix got spooked about officially setting these shorts within the Black Mirror universe. Maybe they weren’t thrilled with the response to the announcement last week, and are now pulling back in order to preserve the perceived quality of the Black Mirror brand. (Which, let’s face it, has about as many duds as full-blown successes.) That’s speculation on my part, but I wonder if we’ll ever find out why they would make an official announcement and then backtrack on it so quickly.

I suppose it’s possible this name change was part of the plan all along. If so, congratulations to all involved, because your gambit worked: we’ve now written two articles about these shorts, and my curiosity about them is higher than it would have been otherwise.

Meanwhile, here’s a breakdown of the three Black Mirror episodes that will be available later this week: