Dark Matter creator Blake Crouch slams Marvel’s use of the multiverse
Dark Matter creator Blake Crouch has taken aim at Marvel’s multiverse, casting the MCU’s approach as a world away from his Apple TV series.
Let's just say Dark Matter creator Blake Crouch is not shy about throwing shade at Marvel's love affair with the multiverse. If you've watched the Apple TV+ show or read his 2016 novel, you might have noticed it deals with parallel worlds in a very different way to the recent MCU trend. Now Crouch's taken aim squarely at Marvel's approach, and he's not mincing his words about why he thinks his series is fundamentally different—and better.
Marvel vs. Dark Matter
In a fresh interview with SlashFilm, Crouch said he's fed up with the comparisons between his work and Marvel's Multiverse Saga. Yes, they both use multiverses, but to Crouch, that's pretty much where the similarities end. And he seems to take it personally when people assume his show is just cashing in on a trend Marvel didn't even start.
He said Marvel has turned multiverses into a lazy plot device, essentially stuffing it into every movie because, well, it's easy. Here's how Crouch put it when explaining his frustration:
Marvel comes along, and they make [multiverses] the plot device of every single movie. I know why they do it, it's because it's easy, and it's because... I'm sorry, I don't have an extraordinary amount of respect for that kind of storytelling.
Crouch went on to make it clear that, in his eyes, Dark Matter is actually doing the polar opposite of what Marvel's doing with alternate realities. For him, the parallel worlds in his story are a lens to crack open the characters and dig into their deeper selves. The multiverse isn't just set dressing or a hand-wave to bring back old villains, it's the whole point of the story.
He referenced a moment from his novel where Jason Dessen—the main character—grapples with the realisation that he's not one man, but one part of a far more complex whole. The series doesn't just play with different versions of Jason, either; it pushes this multifaceted approach onto the whole main cast, which is honestly more ambitious than most mainstream sci-fi has managed over the years.
Were They There First?
Crouch is also quick to defend the originality of his book and the show against accusations they're just hopping on a bandwagon. He admits shows like Sliders were playing with alternate worlds ages ago, but he argues his own novel was one of the first to properly lug multiverse theory into mainstream fiction territory. In Crouch's words:
A lot of people were like, 'Oh, just riding that multiverse trend, aren't you?' And I'm like, 'We were here before.'
If you want to check out where Crouch and his cast take the story next, the Season 2 finale arrives on Apple TV+ on 30 October 2026.
Dark Matter Season 2 wraps up on 30 October 2026.