Dark Matter Creator Reveals How Season 2 Handles Multiverses Differently From Marvel and Rick & Morty [EXCLUSIVE]

Apple TV’s Dark Matter got acclaim and a dedicated cult following when it premiered in 2024, but that didn’t translate into the same kind of mainstream popularity that other sci-fi shows have enjoyed. Part of the problem may have been the fact that Dark Matter Season 1 was a sci-fi series that examined the multiverse, and the hell that can come from wondering about all the lives we did not get to live. In 2024, fans were experiencing significant fatigue with the multiverse, thanks to franchises like Marvel and DC going full bore on the concept with films like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and The Flash or shows like Loki.

Then there’s Rick and Morty, an animated series that has made the multiverse the core of its entire premise since 2013. Dark Matter may have told a much more pointed and poignant story about why the multiverse is so dangerous, but that’s only if fans gave it the chance. Still, the show’s acclaim has been strong enough for Apple TV to give Season 2 a much bigger push. And this time, the creative team is ready to let viewers know why this is the kind of sci-fi multiverse story mainstream viewers would love.

Why Dark Matter’s Multiverse Story Is So Different From Marvel or Rick and Morty, Explained

ComicBook got the chance to sit down with Dark Matter creator Blake Crouch and stars of the show at Comic-Con and talk about where things are headed in Season 2. We also touched on the obvious question of where the show fits in, when the multiverse sub-genre has produced Oscar-winning hits like Everything Everywhere All at Once, and Marvel is still poised to hit with an entire multiversal event film with Avengers: Doomsday. So why is Dark Matter a version of the multiverse concept worth checking out?

“The DNA of our show, I think, is a very different approach to the multiverse story, which is very character-driven, very grounded; it’s just a mechanism to let us really explore character. As long as we think of it that way, I think we stay out of sort of the more pop versions of the multiverse.”

Executive producer Jacquelyn Ben-Zekry also let it be known that “You also kind of have to accept a little bit of the idea; like, Rick and Morty‘s done everything, so don’t worry about it. It’s fine [laughs].”

“Every time I think I have a great new idea, Jackie’s like, ‘Oh yeah, watch Season 4 of Rick and Morty, already!’”

Dark Matter Makes The Madness of the Multiverse All Too Real

To be fair, Season 1 of Dark Matter leaned into some of the same kind of multiverse hijinks (and drama) as Rick and Morty, without trying to outdo or compete with the zany animated series in any way. Dark Matter stars Joel Edgerton as Jason Dessen, a physicist who abandoned his bigger dreams and experiments to marry his sweetheart Daniela (Jennifer Connelly) and have their son Charlie (Oakes Fegley). However, a different version of Jason (from a different reality where he became a wealthy industrialist) decides he wants the family life he never got and is willing to steal it. Using a device he built to travel between realities, the industrialist Jason slips into mild-mannered Jason’s world, kidnaps him, and takes his place.

Over the course of Season 1, the original Jason got lost in the multiverse trying to get back home and experienced all kinds of different worlds: the bad, the good, and the apocalyptic. But even when Jason made it home and reclaimed his life, he found out that his multiverse travels had created infinite ripples of cause and effect, creating legions of variants all looking to claim, or reclaim, the original Jason’s life. Jason had to take Daniela and Charlie into the multiverse with him, where they could hide themselves in a different reality and start life anew.

As Crouch stated, Dark Matter uses the multiverse as a storytelling tool rather than making the sci-fi the core of its show. At the center of the story is Jason, and the examination of who he is as a man. In each reality, a different facet of Jason’s life or personality could take dominance, resulting in a very different kind of man taking shape.

The series becomes a real headtrip when it asks whether reality shapes who we become, or if each variant is a specific manifestation of what is inside the core of that same man, no matter the reality. Season 2 is going to really lean into that latter theme, as Daniela and Charlie have to reconcile with all the different versions of Jason they’ve seen, and whether they can still see the father and husband they knew.

Dark Matter Season 2 will premiere on Apple TV on August 28th.