Death to 2020: Trailer for Netflix mockumentary starring Hugh Grant and Samuel L Jackson is released

Special from Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker will be released just after Christmas

The trailer for Charlie Brooker’s Netflix mockumentary about 2020 has been released.

Titled Death to 2020, the latest project from Black Mirror’s Brooker and Annabel Jones will see a group of fictional talking heads played by the likes of Samuel L Jackson and Hugh Grant looking back on the last 12 months, which are described in the trailer as “the most historic year in history”.

The comedy special will be released on Netflix on Sunday 27 December.

The trailer, which was premiered on Monday (21 December), begins with Jackson’s character Dash Bracket, who is a reporter for fictional New Yorkerly News. 

Meanwhile, Grant is almost unrecognisable as balding history professor Tennyson Floss.

Also starring is Lisa Kudrow as conservative activist Jeanetta Grace Susan, Leslie Jones as behavioural psychologist Dr Maggie Gravel, Tracey Ullman as the Queen, Samson Kayo as scientist Pyrex Flask, Kumail Nanjiani as tech CEO Bark Multiverse and Diane Morgan as “average citizen” Gemma Nerrick.

 Joe Keery and Critin Milioti will also appear.

Hugh Grant stars in the special (KEITH BERNSTEIN/NETFLIX)

Brooker said of the special: “Those who only know me through Black Mirror may not realise that when not writing speculative sci-fi about people frowning at smartphones, I’ve spent years making comedy shows in the UK – including many topical comedy specials.

“So to me, Death to 2020 feels like the collision of several different strands. (Do strands ‘collide'? No. Apologies).”

Describing the special as a “bombastic mockumentary”, he continued: “I don’t love the word ‘satire’ but there’s some of that here… and hopefully viewers will find at least one joke to their liking — because let’s face it, in 2020, any laugh you can emit, no matter how fleeting, is a small but precious victory.”

Death to 2020 comes to Netflix on 27 December.