Netflix has chosen its next adventure: more interactive storytelling.
The streaming giant announced plans Tuesday to double down on interactive series following the success of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Charlie Brooker’s choose your own adventure ’80s-set computer game feature.
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“It’s a huge hit here in India, it’s a huge hit around the world, and we realized, wow, interactive storytelling is something we want to bet more on,” Todd Yellin, VP of product, said, according to Variety. “We’re doubling down on that. So expect over the next year or two to see more interactive storytelling. And it won’t necessarily be science fiction, or it won’t necessarily be dark. It could be a wacky comedy. It could be a romance, where the audience gets to choose – should she go out with him or him.”
Written by series creator Charlie Brooker and directed by David Slade, Bandernsatch, a standalone film in the Black Mirror universe, encourages viewers to make decisions for the main character, young programmer Stefan, who begins to question reality as he adapts a sprawling fantasy novel into a video game.
Although the true success of Bandersnatch is not known, as Netflix typically keeps its streaming data private, the Black Mirror film generated a lot of buzz on social media upon its Friday, Dec. 28 premiere. The film also earned Netflix a multi-million dollar lawsuit filed by Chooseco LLC, the Vermont-based publisher of the Choose Your Own Adventure book series.
Seeking at least $25 million in damages, the lawsuit claimed that the streaming service infringed on trademarks with Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, as their initial “extensive negotiations” never resulted in a deal. The company’s suit also alleged that the film’s violent and graphic content was a “misappropriation” of the company’s trademark.
“We have received an unprecedented amount of outreach from people who believed we were associated with the creation of this film, including parents who were concerned that we had aligned the CYOA brand they knew and loved with content that surprised and offended them,” Shannon Gilligan, co-founder and publisher of Chooseco, said in a statement at the time.
“The use of Choose Your Own Adventure in association with such graphic content is likely to cause significant damage, impacting our book sales and affecting our ability to work with licensing partners in the future,” the statement added. “We would prefer not to resort to litigation, but given the damage that we will suffer as a result of the use of our mark we’ve been left with no other option.”
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is currently available for streaming.
