Dark Matter season 1's book changes, the live-action adaptation remained incredibly faithful to the 2016 novel of the same name, and only made additions that were in keeping with the source material. There's one alternate reality that appears in both the book and the show that could easily connect Dark Matter to another story by the same author.

Dark Matter's interdimensional travel and explore various new realities. The adaptation has already introduced new worlds that never appeared in Crouch's original novel, and one even manages to reference another project from Dark Matter's author/showrunner.

Blake Crouch's Upgrade Could Easily Be Connected To Dark Matter's Virus Story

Upgrade's outbreak scene is eerily similar to Dark Matter's doomed virus universe

Published in 2022, Blake Crouch's Upgrade borrows from one of Dark Matter's most macabre realities and fleshes it out to create a more detailed version of the mini-arc. The Virus Universe is never fully explained when Jason visits the alternate reality in the Dark Matter book, nor does it receive much more context in the adaptation. However, Chicago is revealed to have been brought to its knees by a deadly contagion that has already killed Jason's son and goes on to take his wife. The scene is understandably brief, but Upgrade builds its entire story on a very similar concept.

"If you believe that you or anyone in your home is infected, display a red piece of cloth in a street-facing window. If anyone in your home is deceased, display a black piece of cloth in a street-facing window."

- Dark Matter (2016)

"The CDC and National Guard had ordered every household to keep a visual marker hanging from their front door that identified the condition of the people inside. As I walked up Ninth Street S., it was a devastating thing to see - every ninth or tenth house had a piece of black cloth hanging from its doorknob."

- Upgrade (2022)

Dark Matter uses the multiverse trope, but Upgrade is a sci-fi tale about genetic manipulation. When a mysterious illness sweeps through a small US town, how the outbreak is handled feels as though it has been lifted directly from Dark Matter. Of course, there are bound to be similarities between both instances due to CDC procedures and such, but it's perhaps a little too coincidental that two Blake Crouch books seem so interconnected. So, my theory is that the viruses in both stories have a shared or very similar origin.

How Else Dark Matter & Upgrade Are Similar

Jason Dessen's Upgrade counterpart experiences a very familiar arc

Dark Matter's Jason Dessen is a middle-aged man who's torn from his wife and child due to a heavily sci-fi-influenced storyline, and he's prevented from returning to them for the majority of the story. Both are also replaced as the family patriarch. Swapping out Jason's name for Upgrade's Logan Ramsay makes the similarities between the two characters' arcs seem startlingly similar. This synopsis can be used for both Dark Matter and Upgrade, although there are nuanced differences when other details are taken into . If anything, it's just clear that Crouch has a recognizable writing style and specific narrative preferences.

Deadly virus aside, Dark Matter season 1 includes another compelling Upgrade Easter Egg. Apple TV+'s version of the multiverse saga reveals the Dessen family once had a fourth member called Max. Also played by Oakes Fegley in an alternate reality where Max didn't die, he never existed in the book, but he was Charlie Dessen's twin in the adaptation. Max Dessen dies before the events of Dark Matter season 1, which feels like an indisputable nod to Max Ramsay, who is the late twin of Upgrade's main character. Logan's departed brother also never appears in Upgrade but is mentioned.

Dark Matter & Upgrade Aren't Canonically Connected (But They Could Be)

Upgrade's near-future setting doesn't necessarily exclude it from the Dark Matter universe

Dark Matter's multiversal premise opens the door for pretty much any of Blake Crouch's books to be part of the same canon. If it doesn't align with Dark Matter's main canon, the argument could be made that it's simply set in another reality that's happening away from Jason Dessen's original world. There's nothing in Upgrade that would exclude it from being in Dark Matter's canon, but such a crossover hasn't been confirmed. So, as far as I'm concerned, they share a continuity - albeit a high-concept one.

Upgrade could simply be the future of an unseen Dark Matter reality where the virus is different and was unleashed much later.

Perhaps the one thing keeping this theory from ringing true is that Dark Matter's virus and Upgrade's virus don't act in the same way. While Dark Matter shows its virus victims physically suffering from an undisclosed illness, Upgrade's virus is revealed to attack the mind. Plus, Upgrade is set in the mid-21st century, and the outbreak is new. As such, it can't be set alongside Dark Matter's virus universe. That being said, Upgrade could simply be the future of an unseen Dark Matter reality where the virus is different and was unleashed much later.