With Better Call Saul now in its final stretch, with several big deaths and twists having already heightened the stakes in its sixth season, fans are extremely eager to see how Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul will finally appear anew as Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, respectively. But before we can witness what will presumably be another depressing peek into Jesse’s tumultuous life, Paul has landed a new role on another series that has long been known for disturbing the shit out of its viewers: Black Mirror.
Aaron Paul is currently already in the midst of dealing with hyper-disturbing issues within the fourth season of HBO’s sci-fi thriller Westworld, where he stars as the military vet Caleb. But he apparently hasn’t yet been sated when it comes to taking on complicated and challenging stories in his career, thus his upcoming role in at least one episode of the darkly satirical anthology Black Mirror, where technology is prone to go dangerously haywire even when created under the best of intentions. Which does sound like a pretty solid mixture of Jesse Pinkman and Westworld elements, making Paul a superb addition for the long-awaited Season 6.
According to Variety, Black Mirror’s sixth season is believed to already be in production, with several other new cast members being announced alongside Aaron Paul (as listed below). But for as much as we can celebrate the actor’s presence in the hit series created by Charlie Booker, it’s not yet clear who he will be playing, with all episode and storyline details being kept behind locked doors and such. But considering Black Mirror’s biggest stars each season tend to be the ones invested in the most disturbing situations, I doubt we’ll see a whole lot of Paul’s charming smiles during the installment.
Aaron Paul already has ties to both Netflix and Black Mirror at this point, which further makes this casting addition a solid one. For the Season 4 premiere, "USS Callister," Paul provided a vocal cameo as an online gamer. That episode was co-led by Jesse Plemons, whose creepy AF character Todd notoriously put Paul's Jesse through hell in both Breaking Bad and the Netflix-housed feature spinoff El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. To bring it all together, Paul also played a character named Todd for the streaming service, though for the animated neo-classic BoJack Horseman.
All The Black Mirror Season 6 Cast Members Announced
Let's take a look at the other cast members who were announced besides Aaron Paul, with the obvious understanding that we also don't know who any of these talents will be playing in the new season.
- Kate Mara (House of Cards, Pose, A Teacher)
- Danny Ramirez (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Top Gun: Maverick, Tales of the Walking Dead)
- Josh Hartnett (Penny Dreadful, The Fear Index, Oppenheimer)
- Anjana Vasan (We Are Lady Parts, Killing Eve, Cyrano)
- Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You, Gangs of London, Anne Boleyn)
- Clara Rugaard (Love Gets a Room, The Rising, Press Play)
- Auden Thornton (This Is Us, Doubt, Palm Trees and Power Lines)
All of the cast members listed above are reportedly set to star in the first three episodes of Black Mirror's sixth season, with more cast members expected to be added and revealed in the near-ish future. In other episode news, the upcoming season will allegedly have more episodes than the critically maligned Season 5, which comprised three 2019 installments. (Including the one with Miley Cyrus.)
So it's definitely been a while since the last time we've been disturbed by Black Mirror's dystopian takes on society and our tech-heavy obsessions. But now we can take comfort in things going forward with stellar new stars. And since Aaron Paul has long been known to be tech-averse himself, and famously doesn't use a cell phone, he may very well be the hero this show deserves.
While waiting to see how Paul's episode ranks among the 10 best eps of Black Mirror so far, stay tuned to our 2022 TV premiere schedule to see what new and returning shows are popping up soon.
