This might not be a great week for sci-fi shows of all stripes, since it's been reported that Disney+'s Star Wars show The Acolyte isn't going to get a second season after its streaming numbers fell off, but Apple TV+ is bucking the trend.
The news spread this past weekend that its trippy sci-fi show Dark Matter has been renewed for a second season, bringing back its core cast (including Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly) to futher explore the mysteries set up in its first outing.
Of course, there's a crucial difference between Dark Matter and The Acolyte – the latter had a distinctly mixed reaction from critics and audiences alike, whereas Dark Matter landed really quite well. It's sitting on an 83% score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, while its audience score tracks at the exact same figure. A rare agreement indeed.
Those are the kind of reviews that Apple TV+ clearly has to be enjoying, and it's seen fit to greenlight another season, which further cements it as the best streaming service for fans of high-concept sci-fi. After all, it's also the home of Silo, Severance, Sunny and more.
For those who didn't realise Dark Matter was around, let alone a success, a bit of a summary for you: it's quite a conceptual show, featuring Jason Dessen playing a professor investigating the potential existence of parallel universes – before he's suddenly abducted.
Where things get trippy is the realisation that he's been kidnapped by himself, from another reality – proving his theories correct but also opening up Pandora's box. The season then unfolds in a few different realities, and folds in Jason's attempts to get back to his real family, while that family slowly realises that the Jason they're spending time with might not be who they think.
It's a fun and twisty idea, and an impressively dark and realistic show – really, it's more of a thriller with sci-fi elements than anything else. This means it's a great fit for people who might not assume they'd love genre elements, a little like Severance.
Knowing we'll get another dose of the show at some point is reassuring – although it's probably going to take some time for production to spin up and get started. We'd assume that late 2025 is just about the earliest window when Dark Matter season 2 could arrive.
