Jordan Peele is about to bring back The Twilight Zone, but before he does, the filmmaker wants you to remember something — The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror are not the same.
Yes, they are both beloved sci-fi anthology series, but despite that, they have some very key differences, Peele explains.
"Black Mirror is an absolute masterpiece, and we wouldn't have moved forward with our show if we didn't identify what is unique to Black Mirror and what is unique to Twilight Zone," Peele told Entertainment Weekly. "One of the easy rules that we made for ourselves is that we don't have to explore technology — Twilight Zone covers everything else the imagination can think of."
For an example, Peele pointed to the Twilight Zone episode "The Comedian," which stars Kumail Nanjiani. The episode focuses on a stand-up comedian who makes a deal in order to attain stardom, but with The Twilight Zone being The Twilight Zone, it all backfires, as various part of his personal life go up in smoke.
As Peele explained, "The Comedian" is completely devoid of anything related to technology — something that's at the very core of Charlie Brooker's Netflix series Black Mirror.
Nanjiani expanded on this and took things one step further.
"At its core, Black Mirror is cynical about humanity — that's not a dig, I love the show," he said. "To me, Twilight Zone, no matter how dark the episode, is ultimately optimistic about humanity."
The Twilight Zone premieres on CBS All Access on April 1. Check out a trailer below.
Of course, it comes in the wake of Peele's recently released Get Out follow-up Us.
Yes, they are both beloved sci-fi anthology series, but despite that, they have some very key differences, Peele explains.
"Black Mirror is an absolute masterpiece, and we wouldn't have moved forward with our show if we didn't identify what is unique to Black Mirror and what is unique to Twilight Zone," Peele told Entertainment Weekly. "One of the easy rules that we made for ourselves is that we don't have to explore technology — Twilight Zone covers everything else the imagination can think of."
For an example, Peele pointed to the Twilight Zone episode "The Comedian," which stars Kumail Nanjiani. The episode focuses on a stand-up comedian who makes a deal in order to attain stardom, but with The Twilight Zone being The Twilight Zone, it all backfires, as various part of his personal life go up in smoke.
As Peele explained, "The Comedian" is completely devoid of anything related to technology — something that's at the very core of Charlie Brooker's Netflix series Black Mirror.
Nanjiani expanded on this and took things one step further.
"At its core, Black Mirror is cynical about humanity — that's not a dig, I love the show," he said. "To me, Twilight Zone, no matter how dark the episode, is ultimately optimistic about humanity."
The Twilight Zone premieres on CBS All Access on April 1. Check out a trailer below.
Of course, it comes in the wake of Peele's recently released Get Out follow-up Us.
