Comic book writer Warren Ellis was asked to be the mysterious psychotic author in Bandersnatch

In Netflix’s Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, the author of the choose your own adventure book that gives the show its name is Jerome F. Davies. It’s this book Bandersnatch that the main character Stefan is trying to turn into a video game. Davies, who eventually murdered his wife, is played by Jeff Minter in the series but it turns out a different person almost brought the character to life. The role was offered to comic book writer Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan, Iron Man: Extremis) first.

According to Bleeding Cool, Ellis tells the story of almost appearing in Bandersnatch as Davies in his weekly newsletter. He was apparently asked to play the role in March 2018 for an early April 2018 shoot.

“Three days, and one of the days had not yet been specified. Six hours’ train travel a day to get to the location and back. And I was just too busy with my own show (named the best animated series of 2018 by IGN, and also nominated in their shortlist for best overall television series of the year, thank you IGN) to burn three days, with the possibility that the floating day (the actual filming day) would be one I couldn’t do. Still very grateful to have been asked,” Ellis wrote. “So, hey, I was almost ‘that thing you have to look up on a wikipedia page.’”

Despite turning down the role, Ellis’ presence can be found on Netflix in that animated show he mentions as the writer and co-producer for Castlevania. Minter, who ended up in the part, is a video game designer and programmer who founded Llamasoft.

(via Bleeding Cool)