Dark Matter Producers On The “Fascinating Process” Of Developing Apple TV+’s Multiverse Show

Dark Matter follows Jason Dessen an average college professor living in Chicago with his wife and son. However, everything changes when he is abducted and brought to an alternate universe where his life takes a very different path. As he discovers what has happened he begins the seemingly impossible journey to find his way back to his family. As he comes across countless dangers on this path the most dangerous enemy he will have to face is himself.

Dark Matter is based on Blake Crouch’s novel of the same name. Crouch was intimately involved in the series, serving as showrunner. He was able to be part of every decision from how the story was adapted to casting and beyond. While the series explores science fiction tropes and concepts, it is at its core a human story about a man longing for his family and pondering questions about the paths not taken.

Screen Rant interviewed Dark Matter creator Blake Crouch and executive producer Matt Tolmach. Crouch discussed the adaptation process, exploring the multiverse, and how Edgerton elevated the story. Tolmach revealed how Dark Matter stands out from Spider-Man: No Way Home and broke down the casting process.

Dark Matter Creator Explains The Adaptation Process: “It Was A Roller Coaster”

Dark Matter is based on Crouch’s acclaimed novel of the same name. He revealed not only how it felt to adapt the book into a series, but why he wanted to helm the project as the showrunner.

Blake Crouch: It was the coolest and hardest thing I’ve ever gotten to do. It felt a little bit like leaping off a cliff and seeing if the parachute will open. I have had a couple of things made and have been involved to varying degrees on those, but they were never my thing, where every choice is something that I’m behind and supportive of. This was special enough that I wanted to take that chance here and it was a wild ride. It was a roller coaster. I still kind of can’t believe I got to do it.

Matt, you’ve worked on other projects that deal with the multiverse. How does Dark Matter stand out from something like Spider-Man: No Way Home?

Matt Tolmach: This, to me, is a [show] about all of us. This is a very grounded group of characters and despite the number of worlds, it lives in our world. I think part of the appeal of it, originally to me as a reader, was how easily I could identify with these characters. It isn’t a universe inhabited by superheroes, which we all love; this is our world.

I think that creates a different experience for the viewer. It comes with this sci-fi conceit, but it’s really a very grounded story about a man trying to come to terms with who he is, the choices he made, and the mistakes he made. I see it as a cousin to all of that, but in a very different context.

While the multiverse has become an incredibly popular science fiction story frame, Crouch began contemplating it years before his novel hit shelves in 2016. He explained how using science fiction concepts like the multiverse is the perfect way to explore human stories.

Blake Crouch: I became interested in quantum mechanics shortly after I graduated from college. Must be said, I took as few math and science courses as possible, steered way clear of all that. It was all English for me. But I found as I was beginning my writing career that writing straight thrillers is tricky. There’s just so much you can do. But when you add a speculative component, whether it’s AI, quantum mechanics, gene editing, it opens the story up, and it lets you, in addition to talking about the characters you’re focusing on, it lets you talk about the world that we’re living in now.

I started really delving into quantum mechanics and trying to understand it. I did it for about 10 years before I started writing the book and when I wrote the book the multiverse wasn’t ubiquitous like it is today. It was funny as I wrote the book and we were trying to get the thing going, and then there’s another movie about the multiverse. There’s another show, there’s this. And it’s like, When we do this, we have to do everything we can to set ourselves apart from that.

And the way that we tried to do that was, yes, it’s a sci-fi premise, but it’s about human characters. That was our guiding light all the way through for all of the world building, for all of the speculative sci-fi flash bangs. It’s like, No, it’s about the characters and as long as we keep our focus on that, then we have a chance of hopefully standing out in a kind of crowded space.

Can you both talk to me a little bit about the casting process and bringing Joel on board, not just as the star, but as an executive producer as well?

Blake Crouch: So it was a fascinating process because we were developing the show, and it was going well. We had scripts and it was time to cast. We had not really even begun to think about Jason’s when we got an incoming call that Joel Edgerton had read the book and heard there was a show maybe coming together and wanted to chat. And we were like, Seriously? That’s amazing. So we jumped on this Zoom with Joel, I think we had two of them. And there were just these lovely, wide ranging conversations about life and science.

It just was immediately apparent that we saw this show the same way and beyond that, he was this sort of every man and an incredible nuanced actor. I just remember, I think we talked after the first Zoom, and it was like with Joel, we can make a real human drama. This is what I was saying a minute ago about how do you set yourself apart in a wide field of speculative stuff? And that’s how, someone like that.

We got Joel and then once the show was green lit, immediately we start thinking about Daniela. Our wonderful casting director, Mary Verno, had sent us a list and Jennifer Connolly was on it. And we were like, Seriously? I mean, do you think she? Would she do this? We sent scripts and then suddenly on a Zoom with Jennifer talking about Daniela.

Matt Tolmach: It’s amazing when you do these, you meet with great actors and it becomes, unintentionally because you’re just so excited to meet these people that you’ve admired, and so you’re not really, at least my experience of it, you’re not looking at it as like an audition or anything like that. You’re meeting them. And what happens in those meetings is you realize, Oh, they’re taking over these characters in front of me and embodying them in a way that I actually didn’t even think of.

You start to see the brilliance of them that they bring their own read and interpretation of these characters. With both of them, you began to feel it right away. As brilliant as any character is on the page, when that character is then taken over by an actor, it is given this kind of magical life. I remember we were just sort of in awe of what had happened to Jason and Daniela through the avatars of these great actors. It was a really cool process.

While Jason is kidnapped by a version of himself, Edgerton is able to infuse humanity into Jason2, the kidnapper. Crouch revealed how Edgerton’s performance brought depth and dimension to the character, who in the novel, seems like a much more cut-and-dry villain.

Blake Crouch: Full credit to Joel, who was always of the mind that Jason2 is not a villain. He’s much more of a villain in the book than he is in the show. It’s so interesting and it goes to what we’re talking about with getting actors like this. In the book, and I kind of cringe a little bit now because I know how that last scene with him is written, and it’s very different in the show.

That’s because of Joel. He found the humanity of Jason2 and it makes him such a more dimensional character. When you make him dimensional, then it does that trick of showing you that all of these versions of Jason are just the same entity with these slight little deviations based on the choices we’ve made.

Is there a world that you didn’t get to explore from the book that didn’t make it into the show, or maybe a world that you weren’t able to really dig into in the show that you would’ve liked to explore more?

Blake Crouch: There are more worlds in the show than there are in the book. There’s one, and I don’t want to spoil it, but it’s at the top of episode five that was not in the book, but it was in a journal of mine because I journal when I’m writing and I have all these other notes and there was a world that didn’t make the book, but I was like, we have time. Let’s do this. And I think the world where that Amanda finally visits towards the end without being spoilery is one we got to really explore in the show that was only hinted at in the book.

About Dark Matter

Based on Blake Crouch’s international bestseller. Jason Dessen is abducted into an alternate version of his life. To get back to his true family, he embarks on a harrowing journey to save them from the most terrifying foe imaginable: himself.

Check out our other Dark Matter interviews:

• Joel Edgerton & Alice Braga
• Jennifer Connelly
• Jimmi Simpson

Source: Screen Rant Plus