Dark Matter Season 2 Trailer Reveals How Apple TV Expands Blake Crouch's Sci-Fi Novel
When Apple TV announced that the streamer would be making a second season of the sci-fi series "Dark Matter," based on Blake Crouch's book, we theorized that there were two possible ways to continue the story beyond the ending of what happens in the novel. The show could resume with the Dessen family, finally reunited after physicist Jason (Joel Edgerton) spent the whole first season trying to get back to the correct version of his wife (Jennifer Connelly) and son (Oakes Fegley), as they escape into his multiversal access point called "The Box" and choose a new universe where they can build a new life. Or, perhaps more interestingly, the new season could follow Amanda (Alice Braga), a woman caught up in the chaos of Dessen's experiment.
The first trailer for "Dark Matter" Season 2 is here, and the creative forces behind this series chose the first option. Check it out above.
The Dark Matter Season 2 trailer has us wondering if making another season was a mistake
I enjoyed Crouch's novel well enough, but even though the TV adaptation was relatively faithful to the book, I thought the TV adaptation lost a lot in translation. The mind-bending sci-fi concepts at play in this story frequently verge on silly when flesh and blood actors are expected to deliver them with life-and-death seriousness, and coincidences and plot contrivances in the story that a reader may hand-wave in book form become far more glaring on screen.
Apple's marketing team did a nice job cutting this trailer together for Season 2, but if I had a concern here, it would be that we may be seeing the highlights of the entire season here and it won't actually reflect the experience of watching episode after episode of characters having super serious conversations in hushed tones. Despite the engaging ideas at the center of "Dark Matter," the show became tedious in the same way that much of modern streaming TV does — by dragging out its story into way too many episodes. The fact that we're getting 10 more, with no more source material to pull from, does not give me confidence that Season 2 will reverse that trend.
But hey, I could be wrong. I know a lot of people love this show, including some of my colleagues at /Film, so we'll see how this all shakes out when "Dark Matter" Season 2 arrives on August 28, 2026. Will it remain on our list of Apple's best sci-fi shows after the second season wraps up? Check back with us in a few months to find out.