Warning: Spoilers for episode 4 of Dark Matter are discussed below!
Blake Crouch, the creator and showrunner of Dark Matter, revealed that it was Joel Edgerton who proposed the show’s biggest change from the book.
“About two years ago, shortly after we had cast Joel Edgerton, we met in LA for a Dark Matter ‘summit’ for four days to go over the first four scripts and to talk about the rest of it. It was an idea that Joel had – it really changed, in a lot of ways, the depth of the show,” Crouch tells GamesRadar+.
“He said, ‘I think that Jason shouldn’t just be trying to get back to this perfect world. It would be so much more powerful for me playing this character if he wants to get back to his family, even in spite of like, some pretty intense trauma that happened in that family’s history.’ And it was such a brilliant note. It was one of those light bulb moments and it didn’t just affect one thing. It affects the whole middle part and end of the show and gave it a depth it wouldn’t have had otherwise.”
The series is based on Crouch’s novel of the same name, with Edgerton playing the role of Jason Desson, a scientist and family man who is abducted by an alternate-universe version of himself. In the novel, Jason’s family consists of his wife Daniela and his son Charlie – and he spends the duration of the book trying to find a way home to them. In the series, we learn that Jason had two children: Max and Charlie.
After Daniela gave birth to the twins, Max faced complications and tragically passed away during surgery. This heartbreaking addition to the story accomplishes exactly what Edgerton envisioned: it adds depth to Jason’s journey. It emphasizes that Jason’s vision of a perfect world is wherever his family is, and it sets him apart from the more selfish nature of Jason 2.
Dark Matter episode 4 is available for streaming on Apple TV Plus. For more insights, read our interview with Blake Crouch about adapting his own novel for television.