As other streaming services merge and reorganize, Apple TV+ is holding onto a winner in Dark Matter. Having premiered on May 8, 2024, the sci-fi series has already been renewed for a second season.
Apple’s Sci-Fi Exploration
Over the years, Apple TV+ has built up an impressive library of sci-fi shows. More notably, they’ve made hits out of adapting sci-fi literature like Hugh Howey’s Silo series and even seminal authors like Isaac Asimov and his Foundation series. The latest addition to that collection was Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter, who also wrote the screenplay for the show.
While every service has a lot of different content available, most of Apple’s big hits have been of the sci-fi variety. This is no doubt helped by the general popularity of spacefaring or mind-bending sci-fi media today, where fields ranging from print media to iGaming use futuristic settings to draw in users. For instance, this is best seen with the Starburst slot game, a popular slot with the theme of jewels suspended in space. From space graphics to comprehensive predictions of our society in the future, sci-fi is an all-purpose tool that continues to inspire everything from slots to novels. So far, Apple has found a winning strategy by adapting those novels and other sci-fi stories.
Another point in sci-fi’s favor is that there will always be more of it. Over time, individual stories may age poorly or look quaint once technology advances past them. We’re approaching that point with AI thanks to ChatGPT and OpenAI’s other projects. However, there is always a future to speculate over. Other stories, like Dark Matter, take society as it exists today and throw a very special curveball into the mix – something a writer can do no matter the year.
Dark Matter Renewed
For those not in the know, Dark Matter follows Chicago physicist Jason Dessen (played by Joel Edgerton) as he’s thrown into a mind-bending escapade. His life as a physics professor is disrupted when he’s abducted by a stranger and quickly discovers that he has been taken to an alternate reality. Meanwhile, that stranger is revealed to be his alt-reality counterpart, who has taken his place in the first Jason’s world. That’s just the first episode summarized, in what Apple TV describes as “a story about the road not taken.”
Soon after the first season wrapped up its run in June, Apple TV confirmed that Dark Matter will get its second season. Blake Crouch will return as the main man behind the show, with creation, writing, producing, and showrunning credit. Compared to their other sci-fi adaptations of the work of iconic authors like Asimov, having the author in the screenwriters’ room is probably a huge benefit.
Fresh off the announcement, there’s no indication of a production schedule or when this second season will release. While fans may be tempted to suggest a 2025 release, many modern shows are taking longer and longer to make. This is a pattern discussed in publications like Backstage, among many others.
This is also something Apple has done – Foundation premiered in 2021, had its second season in 2023, and its third is slated for 2025. If that pattern holds, it could be 2026 before the second season of Dark Matter hits screens.
