Dark Matter premiered yesterday on Apple TV+. The series, which is based on the critically acclaimed science fiction novel of the same name by Blake Crouch, follows Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton), a physicist, who when walking home is abducted and sent to an alternate version of his life, where everything is different. Dessen must navigate the maze of realities to return to his own reality and save his real family from a terrifying enemy: himself.

Recently, Crouch, who also serves as showrunner on the series, and executive producer, Matt Tolmach, spoke with SciFi Vision about bringing the novel to television.

Surprisingly, they originally started developing Dark Matter as a film, according to Tolmach. “The challenge then was how do we reduce this sprawling story into two hours,” Tolmach told the site. “...It isn't that we didn't nail it, [but] I think the material was telling us to do something different.”

That however also enabled them to add more story that isn’t in the book as well. “The book is all from Jason's POV and it's a tight POV, and we’re with him the whole time.” Crouch explained. “Off screen in the novel there's this whole storyline with Daniela (Jennifer Connelly) and Jason Two; she's living with this imposter. The book really doesn't delve into that story at all. One of the reasons that I loved getting to do this as a show was, I was like, I can now expand that story. We can build this cool psychological thriller out of that plotline, and it'll be a really nice sort of two tandem plotlines: Jason One and Amanda (Alice Braga), in this crazy journey through alternate worlds trying to get home, just as Daniela is starting to suspect that this man is who is her husband is somehow not her husband.”

From more from the two, including some of the difficulties they faced, what it is like for Crouch to see his story on television, and more, watch the interview below, and be sure to check out the first two episodes of Dark Matter, now available on Apple TV+.