The man behind one of the biggest trends in Hollywood never made a movie in his life. Physicist Hugh Everett III developed the Many-Worlds Interpretation (MWI) of quantum mechanics. He posited that quantum possibilities evolve without collapse. Sci-fi writers interpreted it to mean every choice you make creates another timeline in an infinite number of worlds. From Star Trek‘s mirror universe to the Spider-Verse movies, the concept has become one of sci-fi’s favorite ways to justify multiverse stories. In the last five years, The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once won Best Picture at the 95th Academy Awards. Marvel entered its Multiverse Saga with hit films like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and the Disney+ show Loki. Marvel’s bigger ambitions for the saga had to take a detour. In the meantime, Apple TV launched its entry in the subgenre, and its second season may fill a gap Loki left behind.
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Dark Matter premiered on Apple TV on May 8th, 2024. The show follows Jason Dessen, a college physics professor played by Joel Edgerton, as he is kidnapped by his own doppelganger. Dessen wakes up on another Earth where this other Jason has successfully built a box that allows the user to travel the multiverse. The Jason of the other world takes over our Jason’s life, while he tries desperately to get home. All of this is made possible by Leighton Vance, the startup CEO who financed the project. By the end of the first season, Vance has gone into the box, trying to salvage an investment quickly going left. He encounters trouble and turns to the only person he can trust: himself.
Dark Matter Is Giving Us the Kang Story Marvel Skipped
In the Loki Season 1 finale, He Who Remains explains to Tom Hiddleston’s Loki and Sophie Di Martino’s Sylvie how the first multiversal war began. He tells them that a 31st-century scientist discovers that alternate universes exist and meets alternate versions of themself. The initial contact is peaceful as they exchange knowledge, technology, and discoveries. Eventually, some variants see the other worlds as territories to conquer. The entire story is mostly told in a brief bout of exposition. Dark Matter may show us the whole war.
In the second episode of Dark Matter Season 2, the series flashes back to the first time the box goes online. Leighton Vance gives a speech about the possibilities of the new technology. In an infinite number of Earths, someone has solved the problems theirs hasn’t. He says they can find cures for disease. Eliminate poverty. End wars. Learn what those worlds discovered and “Bring them home.” A sentiment the room rallies behind.
Council of Kangs Vs Legion of Leightons
At the end of Season 1, Jason Dessen cannot trust the other versions of himself because his decisions in the box created hundreds of variants of himself trying to get back home to his family. Leighton Vance doesn’t have that problem. After injuring himself while traveling in the box, Leighton realizes he needs help controlling his mind to travel the multiverse properly. He reaches out to a version of himself that can handle that, a Leighton who became a meditation instructor. As he has mastered the multiverse, Leighton has begun networking with the other Vances, often sharing technology that benefits him. In one world, an investigator is complaining that their company got beat to market on microprocessors and a phone you put in your pocket. Technology that Vance has given his counterpart to produce in their world for profit. What started as a supposedly altruistic venture is slowly becoming an inter-dimensional cartel. The most recent episode establishes that Leighton is building something with massive multiversal implications. A new advancement almost worth starting a war over.
It’s not ironic as much as inevitable that two series built around the Many-Worlds Interpretation would explore similar themes. Avengers: Endgame Encore revealed that TVA agents and Miss Minutes will be returning in Avengers: Doomsday. One character not set to return is Kang. The villain was originally going to be the big bad of the Multiverse Saga, but an assault conviction meant Jonathan Majors wouldn’t be kept on board. At the end of 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, audiences were given a brief glimpse of the Council of Kangs, a group of Kang variants that included characters like Immortus, Rama-Tut, and Centurion. The mid-credits sequence wouldn’t pay off for Marvel. But on Dark Matter, the Legion of Leightons could become a threat to a whole lot of Jasons.
Which version of the multiverse do you think gets it better, Loki or Dark Matter? Let us know in the comments below.
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