Plaything Cast Guide: Every New & Returning Actor In The Black Mirror Season 7 Episode

Netflix's Black Mirror has always drawn in massive stars, and the season 7 episode Plaything is no different. Though Black Mirror is an anthology series, Plaything is one of two episodes that directly connects to a previously told story, alongside Black Mirror season 7, episode 6, "USS Callister: Into Infinity." Plaything is a sequel to the 2018 standalone movie Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, and features two actors reprising their roles from the interactive film. Like Bandersnatch, it follows game developers whose grip on reality begins to falter and fade between 1994 and the near-future of London in 2034.

As with all of Black Mirror's high-concept science fiction horror episodes, Plaything needed an all-star cast to deliver its frightening and thought-provoking story. Luckily, Plaything got exactly that. From BAFTA and Oscar-winning performers to young and promising new stars in Hollywood, Plaything has more than enough talent to stand among the best episodes of Black Mirror. It also features a wide variety of familiar faces, so getting to know the cast of Black Mirror: Plaything is well worth it.

Peter Capaldi As Older Cameron Walker

Date of Birth: April 14, 1958

• Active Since: 1982

Actor: Peter Capaldi was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Capaldi had his breakthrough role in 2005, when he began playing Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It. However, Capaldi has become much more widely known in recent years for playing the Twelfth Doctor in the long-running sci-fi show Dr. Who from 2013 to 2017. Aside from his biggest roles, Capaldi has had a long and storied career in showbusiness. Capaldi has won a huge number of awards, including a BAFTA and an Oscar for directing Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life.

Character: Peter Capaldi plays the Older Cameron Walker in Plaything. In 2034, Cameron had unorthodox views about the limits of the human mind and artificial intelligence. He's also somehow connected to a murder investigation.

Lewis Gribben As Younger Cameron Walker

Date of Birth: c. 1997

• Active S ince:

Actor: Lewis Gribben was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and graduated from Queen Margaret University in 2019 (via Queen Margaret University). Gribben had his breakthrough role in 2022, when he played Danny in Somewhere Boy. Gribben had a few minor parts in notable projects like T2 Trainspotting prior to 2022, but his career took off at that point. He recently appeared in Apple TV+'s war drama Masters of the Air, and Gribben has also starred in a movie, The Severed Son. He's even set to appear in the upcoming series Blade Runner 2099 alongside Michelle Yeoh and Hunter Schafer (via Behind the Blind).

Character: Lewis Gribben plays the Younger Cameron Walker in Plaything. In 1994, Cameron developed a video game that focuses on "cute, evolving artificial lifeforms." He also has a mentor/mentee relationship with the renowned game developer Colin Ritman, and he seeks advice from the older creative.

James Nelson-Joyce As DCI Kano

Date of Birth: 1989

Image via Hulu

• Active Since: 2013

Actor: James Nelson-Joyce was born in Orrell Park, Liverpool, England. Nelson-Joyce had his breakthrough in 2017's Little Boy Blue, where he played James Yates. Since then, Nelson-Joyce has enjoyed a good amount of success, especially in British TV shows like The Responder, Time, and most recently in A Thousand Blows, as well as in movies like Guy Ritchie's The Covenant. Nelson-Joyce has also experienced a sharp rise in global popularity recently, thanks to shows like A Thousand Blows and Black Mirror.

Character: James Nelson-Joyce plays Detective Chief Inspector Kano in Plaything. Kano is investigating the murder that Cameron Walker is tied up in.

Will Poulter As Colin Ritman

Date of Birth: January 28, 1993

• Active Since: 2007

Actor: Will Poulter was born in England, United Kingdom. Poulter's breakthrough role was in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, where he played Eustace Scrubb. Just three years later, Poulter starred in We're the Millers alongside Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis, and Emma Roberts. Since then, Poulter has become a young star of modern Hollywood. He's starred in action movies like The Maze Runner, superhero films like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, dramas like Dopesick, comedies like The Bear, and horror movies like Midsommar.

Character: Will Poulter plays Colin Ritman in Plaything. Colin is actually one of just two characters from Black Mirror: Bandersnatch who has returned for the sequel, Plaything. In Bandersnatch, Colin was already an experienced game developer working for Tuckersoft when he first met Stefan Butler (Fionn Whitehead). Colin then acted as a mentor to Stefan, offering him LSD to get him out of a creative rut and explaining the idea of branching parallel realities to him. In Plaything, Colin takes a similar approach to Cameron Walker some years after the multiple endings of Bandersnatch.

Plaything Supporting Cast & Character Guide

Asim Chaudhry as Mohan Thakur: Asim Chaudhry plays Mohan Thakur in Plaything. Along with Will Poulter, Chaudhry is the only actor from Bandersnatch reprising the same role in Plaything. Thakur is the CEO of Colin Ritman and Stefan Butler's game company, Tuckersoft. Chaudhry is known for shows like People Just Do Nothing, where he played Chabuddy G, and movies like Click & Collect, where he played Dev D'Cruz.

Michele Austin as Jen Minter: Michele Austin plays Jen Minter in Plaything. Not much is known about Minter, though she could be a reference to Jeff Minter, a video game designer whom Colin Ritman is based on and who played Jerome F. Davies in Bandersnatch (via Hollywood Reporter). Austin is known for movies like Hard Truths and Another Year and for shows like The Bill, where she played Yvonne Hemmingway.

Darryl Foster as PC Mo Raiker: Darryl Foster plays PC Mo Raiker in Black Mirror: Plaything. Raiker is another police officer investigating Cameron Walker. Foster is known for several short films and the miniseries Trigonometry.