{"id":632685,"date":"2026-10-16T18:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T18:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/632685\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T18:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T18:56:11","slug":"dark-matter-star-jimmi-simpson-reflects-on-ryans-wild-cross-dimensional-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/632685\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Dark Matter’ Star Jimmi Simpson Reflects on Ryan\u2019s Wild Cross-Dimensional Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dark Matter season one<\/a> had a clear narrative throughline<\/a>. Main character Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton) was kidnapped by a Jason from another world who\u2019d invented a way to hop between dimensions. While the duplicitous Jason 2 settled into Jason 1\u2019s life, Jason 1 managed to escape Jason 2\u2019s world and set out on a quantum-powered quest to find his way home.<\/p>\n

Season two<\/a>, which picks up after Jason 1 and his family, wife Daniela (Jennifer Connelly) and son Charlie (Oakes Fegley), have reunited and are attempting to restart their lives in a parallel Chicago, has gotten a lot more complicated<\/a>. As you\u2019d expect, the ability to travel between worlds\u2014via \u201cthe Box,\u201d Jason 2\u2019s invention, with the help of a special compound perfected by chemist Ryan Holder (Jimmi Simpson)\u2014has sparked a cross-dimensional ripple effect.<\/p>\n

For Ryan\u2014specifically Ryan 1, the show\u2019s primary version of the character\u2014that\u2019s meant venturing on his own homeward journey.<\/p>\n

In season one, Ryan 1 became another one of Jason 2\u2019s kidnapping victims, paying a terrible price for figuring out that a slippery doppelganger had taken over the life of his best friend. Jason 2 did show a tiny bit of consideration by stranding him in a wonderfully progressive world\u2014rather than one of Dark Matter\u2019s worst-case scenario dimensions, which have included perpetual blizzards, rampaging tornados, and murder hornets.<\/p>\n

But it was still a monstrous thing to do, and as Simpson pointed out in a recent interview with io9, Ryan 1 is one of few Dark Matter characters who wasn\u2019t actively involved in creating the Box.<\/p>\n

A version of him did dream up the drug that enables travelers to shift between dimensions, but even that specific Ryan (Ryan 2, who\u2019s implied to have been killed off in season one) didn\u2019t know exactly what it was going to be used for.<\/p>\n

\"Dark\u00a9 Apple TV <\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t ever choose to say \u2018go\u2019 and do this with the Box,\u201d Simpson explained, speaking about Ryan 1. \u201cAlmost every other character that\u2019s traveling, save for Jason\u2019s family, made a choice to explore places and to insert themselves into places that they shouldn\u2019t be. Whereas Ryan was a victim. He was like, \u2018What the hell happened? How do I get home?\u201d<\/p>\n

As we\u2019ve seen in season two, Ryan has teamed up with Amanda 2 (Alice Braga), who happens to be in that same progressive world. She\u2019s there by choice, having decided to remain there after traveling with Jason 1 across season one, and agrees to help him recreate the drug so that he can re-enter the Box and return home.<\/p>\n

They bond over their mutual loathing of Jason 2; the guy who stranded Ryan is also Amanda\u2019s odious ex-boyfriend. Soon, she decides to go with him. She was part of the team that helped create the Box, and she feels guilty about Ryan\u2019s plight. The least she can do, she figures, is try to guide him home.<\/p>\n

However, \u201chome\u201d is an increasingly complicated concept. Because of the events of Dark Matter season one, the world where Jason 1 once lived is compromised. Certain shady pockets of the government have discovered the Box and are keenly interested in anyone connected to it, and Ryan can\u2019t stay there.<\/p>\n

So he and Amanda decide to go back to what they\u2019ve affectionately dubbed the \u201cpolite sex world,\u201d a place where the Box wasn\u2019t met with fear. The opposite, in fact: it was hailed as a public art installation donated by some generous, if mysterious, creator.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a place where they can both live without attracting suspicion. As we learned in season one, the Amanda in that world has never lived in the United States. And the version of Ryan that was born there died some years prior. After \u201cour\u201d Ryan was stranded there, he was able to reunite with his sister, who joyfully accepted his miraculous reappearance.<\/p>\n

\"Dark\u00a9 Apple TV <\/p>\n

So it makes sense he\u2019d want to go back. If his true world isn\u2019t an option, this is a pretty great second choice\u2014until he and Amanda realize something has gone terribly wrong in their absence.<\/p>\n

When they first emerge from the Box, all seems normal, but that doesn\u2019t last long. \u201cYou\u2019ve broken quarantine and curfew,\u201d guards in heavy protective gear inform them before forcing them into a holding facility.<\/p>\n

The very confused pair learn that Chicago is being throttled by a deadly outbreak that\u2019s rapidly becoming a global problem. And it\u2019s their fault. Other versions of them, spawned thanks to decisions they made during their Box travels, became infected and unwittingly brought the \u201cblack iris plague\u201d back to this world.<\/p>\n

For Ryan, it\u2019s a horrifying realization on many levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs season two progresses, he realizes he doesn\u2019t know exactly where his home is, and maybe he is more of an explorer than he thought,\u201d Simpson said. \u201cI think there is a certain, not just courage, but also he [took] pride in that he was able to do this. And so to find out that he is Patient Zero and that he not only did his brain partly have to do with creating the Box, but he himself has now sacrificed countless lives? It\u2019s a low point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simpson revealed that he actually broke his leg near the end of the season and was able to use the injury in his portrayal of Ryan. \u201cHe\u2019s in a lot of pain in a lot of ways. The bone marrow line [after Ryan has been subjected to invasive medical tests] was already written in episode seven, and I actually was limping because of that before I broke my leg. The run to the Box was an actual \u2018me in pain trying to get through and see what else can be done from this horrible mistake that I made.\u2019 So there are layers of pain throughout Ryan starting in episode seven, and it all does boil down to, \u2018Oh my god, this is my fault.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

While Ryan 1 is the show\u2019s main version throughout season two, we do see other Ryans pop up from time to time. The Ryan who was swapped into Ryan 1\u2019s world back in season one to conceal his disappearance\u2014the good-natured mechanic\u2014finally gets to go home, giving us a very rare Dark Matter happy ending.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a Ryan who pops up in yet another world, where he starts working with different versions of Leighton (Dayo Okeniyi)\u2014Jason 2\u2019s former business partner\u2014who are trying to create an even more powerful Box. They style themselves as a \u201cmultiverses without borders\u201d group, aiming to help connect different worlds with life-saving advances in technology, medicine, and more. You know, in case a deadly plague breaks out in a world that urgently needs access to the cure.<\/p>\n

\"Dark\u00a9 Apple TV <\/p>\n

We don\u2019t get to know this Ryan too well, but he does have a distinguishing characteristic: a mustache.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat Ryan has a much greater sense of confidence because it\u2019s born from being his authentic self,\u201d Simpson said. \u201cI did have the backstory that he was married to a man, and it was a beautiful relationship. And he lost him, and so he\u2019s forging his life on his own. That\u2019s part of the reason why he agrees to go ahead and do this because he does believe in the greater good even if he doesn\u2019t understand that that\u2019s not exactly what\u2019s happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, io9 talked to Blake Crouch<\/a>, the creator, showrunner, writer, and executive producer of Dark Matter, which is based on his novel. He said he envisioned a three-season arc for the show. So we asked Simpson\u2014a sci-fi fan who\u2019s also appeared in Westworld and Black Mirror and is thrilled to be part of shows that specialize in \u201cBradburian, Asimovian-level predictive sci-fi\u201d\u2014what he\u2019d like to see in Ryan\u2019s future should Dark Matter return.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019d like to live in a universe where he truly understands his health insurance and whether or not he could get a massage four times a year,\u201d Simpson said. \u201cI hope that he lands in a place where science, like human empathy, is as strong as their need to explore. So that as they break through other universes or other civilizations, they bring with them the responsibility of not damaging them. I think that\u2019s where he would land the most happily because he is an empathic human being, and he\u2019s also got this big engine running upstairs. And you can\u2019t have that first thing without a lot of emotional intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

New episodes of Dark Matter arrive Fridays on Apple TV+.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out the best movies and TV shows<\/a> to stream this month and all the upcoming sci-fi, fantasy, and horror books<\/a> that should be on your radar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dark Matter season one had a clear narrative throughline. Main character Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton) was kidnapped by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[7074,310140,2598,156,310141,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-632685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-apple-tv","tag-blake-crouch","tag-dark-matter","tag-entertainment","tag-jimmi-simpson","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}