Could interactive storytelling be the future of Netflix?

Is Netflix's new interactive technology a gimmick, or could it be the streaming platform's future?

Netflix on Friday released Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, a choose-your-own-adventure movie in which viewers make decisions that direct the plot. There aren't just one or two choices, either; there are tons of them concerning just about everything, including what the main character has for breakfast. With all of these decisions, there are more than one trillion different story permutations, Variety reports. It's sort of like a mix of a film and a video game experience, and Netflix had to develop all new technology to make it work.

This is not just a one-time deal, either. The New York Times reports that Netflix is ready for more and is "calling for producers to submit interactive proposals in genres from horror to romantic comedy." One executive told Variety that Bandersnatch is just "the first one," implying there's plenty more on the way. He added, "We think we are onto something that could be really exciting."

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But Netflix recognizes that it faces a challenge in getting viewers on board with this format, which has been tried before but never quite caught on. Netflix's director of product innovation told the Times, "We've learned to press 'play,' drop the remote, and just lean on back and let the TV wash over us. I've seen 2-year-olds do this." The production of something like this is also intense; two-and-a-half hours worth of story was shot for Bandersnatch over the course of five weeks.

As one Netflix executive told the Times, in a decade, Bandersnatch will either be seen as a "real turning point" or just "another false start."