The hum of high-performance servers and the glow of the “on-air” sign have returned to West London as Black Mirror Season 7 officially enters production at the historic Ealing Studios. After a hiatus that left fans dissecting the meta-commentary of “Joan is Awful,” creator Charlie Brooker is reportedly pivoting toward a more visceral, systemic dread. The central theme of the new anthology is “The Great Data Center Blackout”—a speculative event where the world’s cloud-stored memories, identities, and financial records are wiped clean in a single, catastrophic cooling failure.

Ealing Studios, known for its rich history in British cinema, is being transformed into a labyrinth of high-tech morgues and abandoned server farms. Early whispers from the set suggest a star-studded cast, including The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White and British breakout star Ambika Mod. The production design is said to lean heavily into “analog-futurism,” depicting a society forced to navigate a post-digital landscape where the physical artifacts of the 20th century—Polaroids, vinyl, and handwritten ledgers—suddenly become the most valuable currency on the planet.

As the UK grapples with its own real-world data center energy crisis in early 2026, Brooker’s timing feels characteristically, and uncomfortably, prophetic. The season is rumored to feature an experimental “interactive blackout” episode, utilizing new streaming technology to simulate a total device failure for the viewer. Whether this season will offer a glimmer of hope or plunge us further into digital despair remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: after The Great Data Center Blackout, we may never look at our “cloud” backups the same way again.