INDIANAPOLIS — Alternate realties collide in Apple TV+'s newest sci-fi drama series "Dark Matter."
"'Dark Matter' is really about the road not taken, in many ways. It's a quest of a guy trying to get his family back through a multi-parallel universe," said Golden Globe nominee Joel Edgerton ("Loving," "The Gift"), who plays the lead, Jason Dessen. "It's really about the choices we make in life and whether we regret or stand by them, and the idea of do we wonder what life might've been like in any other choice configuration."
Also starring in the series is Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly ("A Beautiful Mind," "Top Gun: Maverick"), who plays Daniela, Edgerton's character's wife before he is abducted into an alternate version of his life.
"I'm the family at home that he's trying to get to, who, meanwhile, is contending with another version of him that has appeared," Connelly said. "I think it's also a story about a marriage and about things that a lot of people deal with, like questioning their happiness and other choices they might've made."
"Dark Matter" is adapted from Black Crouch's 2016 novel of the same name, and he was an integral part in the TV series the showrunner, executive producer and writer.
"It's humbling and sobering, especially once we got the cast," Crouch said of working with these actors. "When you get people at that level, for me, I was like, 'Wow, you gotta step your game up, dude.'"
And here's a piece of advice — don't let the sci-fi genre for "Dark Matter" turn you off because it isn't the typical extraterrestrial or space exploration.
"I think it's a brilliant way of speaking about the subject because Blake (Crouch) grabs the genre of science fiction of quantum physics, talking about all these things but with a human perspective," said Alice Braga ("I Am Legend," "Queen of the South"), who plays Amanda, Edgerton's character's girlfriend in an alternate universe. "We all have that moment in life that we questioned ourselves, that we think about choices, about regret, about family, about what we want for our lives or we dream, and I think this show brings all those questions in a beautiful way."
And every lead character needs a supportive friend. That's where Emmy nominee Jimmi Simpson ("Westworld," "Star Trek: Prodigy," "Black Mirror") comes in — for yet another great turn in the sci-fi genre.
"It's one of my favorite things. I've been a voracious reader from the start," Simpson said. "Especially this gently-predictive sci-fi that's based in reality, like with our story ... but it's based in the way the universe actually is, and that's really exciting."
One of the series' executive producers, Matt Tolmach ("Jumanji" reboot films, "Spider-Man" Marvel films), has been part of major Hollywood blockbuster movies over the last decade, but it was Crouch's book that drew him in to adapt the story into an eight-episode TV series.
"For me, especially in this genre, ('Dark Matter' is) a very grounded world that we all can identify with. This question that the book poses right away: Are you happy in your life? Are you really happy?" Tolmach said.
New episodes of "Dark Matter" are released Wednesdays through June 19 on Apple TV+.