Blake Crouch has built an entire show around parallel worlds, but he is not a fan of how Marvel uses them. The creator of Apple TV’s Dark Matter told SlashFilm that Marvel turned the multiverse into a plot device for “every single movie” because it is “easy,” and he does not “have an extraordinary amount of respect for that kind of storytelling”. His comments arrived during the final week of Dark Matter Season 2, which ends on October 30, 2026, and they drew a clear line between his character-first approach and the blockbuster model.
What Blake Crouch Said About Marvel
Crouch spoke to SlashFilm in an exclusive Zoom interview about the irony of making a multiverse show while Marvel’s Multiverse Saga dominates screens. The question was whether he had noticed the difference between the two approaches. He had.
“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, just for what you said. This is literally the antithesis, what we’re doing, of that. We’re using it as a way to explore character, to explore what our characters are capable of.” — Blake Crouch to SlashFilm
The quote spread across entertainment outlets on October 24, 2026. ScreenRant ran it under the headline “Apple TV Sci-Fi Show Creator Slams The MCU’s Multiverse Saga,” while Soap Central and IMDb picked up the same interview.
The Line That Explains Dark Matter’s Multiverse
Crouch did not stop at criticism. He explained what his show does differently, and he pointed to a specific line from his 2016 novel to make the point.
“There’s a line in the book towards the end, when Jason has this kind of epiphany as he’s driving his family to the power plant to escape, and he says, ‘I realize I’m not just one man, I’m just one facet of a multifaceted man called Jason Dessen.’ And that’s really what the show is. And the difference of the show is we’re not just showing you multifacets of Jason, we’re showing you multifacets of most of our main cast.” — Blake Crouch
Dark Matter follows Joel Edgerton as Jason Dessen, a physicist pulled into alternate versions of his own life. Season 1 adapted Crouch’s novel. Season 2 moved beyond the book and gave multiple actors, including Jennifer Connelly, the chance to play variants of their own characters rather than new versions of famous heroes.
How Marvel’s Approach Compares
The Multiverse Saga covers Phases Four through Six of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It brought back Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in Spider-Man: No Way Home, turned Loki into a multiverse show, and is building toward Avengers: Doomsday, where Robert Downey Jr. returns as Doctor Doom and heroes from different realities come together.
Dark Matter uses the same concept as a warning. Jason2 in Season 1 is a villain because he uses the multiverse to hijack another version of his own life and fix his regrets. Leighton Vance (Dayo Okeniyi) tries to build a better world with the Box in Season 2, and his idealistic plans fall apart. Crouch’s point is that the multiverse in his show is a character study, not a way to bring back a favourite actor in a new costume.
The Timing of the Comments
Crouch’s interview landed in the same week as the Dark Matter Season 2 finale. The tenth and final episode of the season arrives on Apple TV on Friday, October 30, 2026, closing a ten-episode run that began on August 28, 2026. The season has released one episode every Friday, and the finale is the last scheduled installment.
The comments also arrived ahead of Avengers: Doomsday, which opens on December 18, 2026, and is the clearest example of the multiverse-as-event model Crouch described. Marvel has not responded to Crouch’s remarks.
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Where to Watch Dark Matter
All released episodes of Dark Matter are streaming on Apple TV. The service is available in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, India, and more than 100 other countries and regions. The series is an Apple TV original, so subscribers in every market can watch the same episodes on the same release schedule. Season 1 and the first nine episodes of Season 2 are available now, with the finale arriving on October 30, 2026.
Also Read: Dark Matter Season 2 Episode 7 Recap: The Pyramid, Charlie’s Box Journey, and That Ending Explained
For more sci-fi series coverage and creator interviews, keep reading VvipTimes.
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