Dark Matter stars Jennifer Connelly and Jimmi Simpson have hit just about every genre in their careers – but there was something special that true them to the new Apple TV Plus series.
“I thought it was a great idea for a show. I thought the combination of the sort of domestic love story that kind of then tipped into a little bit of a thriller later in the season with this adventure,” Connelly, who’s done everything from bloody giallo horror films to action movies like Top Gun: Maverick, tells GamesRadar+. “[It’s] kind of like an Odyssean adventure that Jason goes on to get back home and all of the literal different crazy worlds that he goes through. I thought it could make really fun, exciting television, and I like the opportunity to play different versions of a character.”
Connelly plays Daniela Dessen, wife to physicist and professor Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton), who gets kidnapped one night after walking home from a bar in Chicago. After Jason is thrown into an alternate version of his life, a new Jason takes his place. The series is based on the acclaimed novel by Blake Crouch, who is the creator, showrunner, and executive producer of the series.
The series also stars Jimmi Simpson, who is no stranger to the sci-fi genre having starred in Westworld, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and Jordan Peele’s Twilight Zone. Simpson says the series stood out to him for a particular, more emotional reason.
“My first reaction [to the script] was, ‘Oh my God, someone’s tackling the what-if human fear and daydream. What if I’d done the other thing?’ How are they gonna pull this off?” Simpsons tells GR+. “And then after I read the first couple episodes, which was I think all that was available, I then ordered two copies of the novel right away and read that and was blown away that they posed the question and then satisfied. They just articulated this universal human wondering so beautifully, as well as the follow-through. And from that point on, I was obsessed with hopping on.”
The cast includes Alice Braga, Oakes Fegley, Dayo Okeniyi, and Amanda Brugel. The first three episodes are helmed by Jakob Verbruggen, who helmed the Black Mirror episode, ‘Men Against Fire.’
Dark Matter hits Apple TV Plus on May 8. For more, check out our list of the best new TV shows in 2024 and beyond, or, check out our chat with Dark Matter producer Matt Tolmach about how Jason Dessen is a lot like the Green Goblin, or our chat with Blake Crouch about why helming his own adaptation made perfect sense.
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