Officially, Dark Matter and For All Mankind exist in separate continuities. They're both sci-fi shows on Apple TV, but that's about where the connection ends.
However, Dark Matter season 2 episode 2, “A Perfect World,” takes Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton) and his family to a universe that feels very much like a meta nod to the generational space opera with which it shares a streaming platform. For those who have never seen For All Mankind, since beginning in 2019, it has taken viewers through decades of an alternate timeline where the Russians beat the Americans to the moon.
As such, the space race never ended. The ongoing contest among Earth's various nations and corporations to outdo one another into the present day results in a level of technological innovation that never happened in our universe. For All Mankind was expanded into a franchise when the Star City spinoff launched earlier this year, but the saga is contained within those two shows. I think Dark Matter just made a very strong argument for being allowed to join the canonical club, though.
FULL SPOILERS ahead for Dark Matter season 2 episode 2, "A Perfect World."
Dark Matter's new throwback universe feels like an intentional counterpart to For All Mankind's timeline
Dark Matter is a multiverse story. There's no time travel involved. That doesn't mean showrunner Blake Crouch doesn't give the show its own version of time travel. Just as the Futuristic Chicago feels like it exists in the near future because it's more enlightened and technologically advanced, the Retro Chicago introduced in "A Perfect World" has a strong vibe of existing in the 1960s or 1970s, despite it still being the 2020s, like in every other Dark Matter reality shown.
When the Dessens start looking into why no one is walking around this Retro Chicago while staring at their phones or making use of other modern technological breakthroughs, they discover that the space race never happened in that universe. At all. While reading books and newspaper clippings at the local library, Jason and his family learn that "JFK lost to Nixon, and then Nixon defunded NASA." That pivotal change in 1960 ultimately meant the microchip and the microprocessor were never invented. As Jason explains, they were both "a direct result of the race to space."
So, although there are things like cars and TVs in Retro Chicago, they haven't really advanced all that much since the 1960s. Similarly, people are still reliant on things like vinyl records and VHS tapes for the consumption of media at home. Meanwhile, over in For All Mankind, humanity has access to technology like smartphones and electric cars in eras far sooner than we ever could have enjoyed them. Similarly, there are already human colonies on the Moon and Mars, and the show's timeline is only just catching up to the 2020s.
Despite being science-fiction, For All Mankind makes every effort to be as grounded as reasonably possible, and the same is true of Dark Matter. There's nothing to really prevent both stories from existing within the same canon. For All Mankind could simply be one of the many realities that Jason is capable of visiting in the Box. It's never made any effort to establish itself as a single timeline. In fact, the very reason For All Mankind is so compelling is because it diverges so drastically from our own. As such, I don't think it's wild to assume that there are plenty of other off-screen timelines in For All Mankind, and maybe, just maybe, we've seen some of them in Dark Matter.
Dark Matter and For All Mankind can perfectly avoid ever confirming this potential crossover
Whether or not Dark Matter's Retro Chicago is an intentional nod to how For All Mankind could have worked out is something I guess only the writers can confirm. On the other hand, the matter of whether or not it's an official crossover will probably always remain unresolved in terms of on-screen reveals. As I already mentioned, the Box in Dark Matter does not travel through time, but strictly takes its passengers to universes that are all locked in chronological synchronization. In other words, if it's midday in one universe, it's also midday in all the others.
The reason I'm being so particular about this is that it means all of Dark Matter has taken place in the present day. For argument's sake, let's say Jason was originally abducted by Jason2 in 2024, when season 1 premiered. If so, then Dark Matter season 2 is less than a year later — Charlie (Oakes Fegley) mentions they've been on the run for seven months in the season 2 premiere, "A Quiet Life." Taking all this into account, it's then vital to also bear in mind that For All Mankind's upcoming final season will jump forward only to 2020.
Therefore, everything that's happened in For All Mankind, and probably the vast majority of what will happen when the show returns, would be set before Dark Matter and before the Box was completed. So, it would be impossible for Jason to show up in For All Mankind. Remember, he can't travel back in time. While it is possible that the Dessens could travel to the For All Mankind timeline, it would be after the story's main events and would be way too on-the-nose when compared to the subtle signs of a shared continuity implied by Retro Chicago.
Similarly, I suppose that it's not impossible that multiversal variants of For All Mankind characters could show up in other universes that the Dessens visit. But, again, that would be a very bold move that would forever alter how both shows are seen. In other words, while there are certainly ways Apple TV could more directly connect two of its best sci-fi shows, it would probably be a little cheap and gimmicky if Dark Matter and For All Mankind ever undeniably crossed paths.
Dark Matter season 2 is streaming now on Apple TV, as are the first five seasons of For All Mankind.
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