Marvel's Multiverse Saga is nearing its endgame with Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, but on the small screen, Apple TV sci-fi series Dark Matter is keeping the multiverse flame alight. Matt Tolmach bridges the gap between the two as a long-serving producer on Sony's Spider-Man movies and Dark Matter season 2, and has shared his thoughts on their wildly differing approaches to multiversal storytelling.
Speaking with GamesRadar+ ahead of the Apple TV panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2026, Tolmach, who was a producer on every Spider-Man movie between 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man and 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home, touched on the key difference between Dark Matter's more "relatable" multiverse, as it compares to the MCU.
"[Dark Matter] is a very grounded universe," Tolmach says. "It's us. It's you. It's everybody. It's all of us living very normal lives. It just feels a little bit more relatable in that way. It's about normal everyday people, but the choices and the possibilities are equally grand. I just think it's a different way to explore some of those incredibly big ideas that are now being explored in the superhero universe as well."
It's a fair assessment. While comic book movie multiverse storytelling has typically focused on superpowered variants, strange new worlds, and threats to the fabric of reality itself, Dark Matter is about a normal family reckoning with exposure to a technology humanity shouldn't be messing with, and trying to find a way forward through it all. Tolmach considers this the unique appeal of the show.
"It taps into these very existential questions for the characters as they try to find each other and themselves in the middle of the influences," he says. "It asks some of the biggest questions that I believe all of us wrestle with: Who am I? What if I had another life?"
Dark Matter's 10-episode second season sees the Dessen family attempt to start a new life together following the influx of alt-universe variants into their world at the end of season 1. Showrunner Blake Crouch told us that he's "always thought of the show as a three-season story," and Tolmach is similarly committed to seeing the story through to the end.
"I want to keep making the show. It's what I do. But it's really because I don't want to say goodbye to characters," Tolmach says. "That's the hardest thing when you finish a movie or you finish a TV show; these people, these characters, become part of your reality. We all see each other every day. Both the actors, but also the characters become real in your life. And I don't want to say goodbye. I want to see where they go."
Dark Matter season 2 streams on Apple TV from August 28, with new episodes airing weekly. For more, check out our list of the best Apple TV shows and fill out your watchlist with our rundown of the most exciting new TV shows heading your way.
