Dark Matter characters

Appears from the start

A physics professor in Chicago who once left promising research behind to build a life with Daniela and their teenage son, Charlie. He loves his family but sometimes wonders what professional life he might have had. After an ordinary evening with them, a masked stranger abducts him and forces him to surrender the life he knows.

Appears from the start

Jason's wife, an artist who set aside a rising career when she and Jason chose to raise a family. Their marriage is affectionate and grounded in shared history, including grief for a child they lost before Charlie's birth.

Appears from the start

The fifteen-year-old son of Jason and Daniela. He is close to both parents, struggles in school, and is learning to drive. For Jason, Charlie is living proof of the family life he chose over a more ambitious scientific career.

Appears from the start

Jason's former college roommate, now a celebrated neuroscientist. He has just won a major science prize and offers Jason a research position, unintentionally sharpening Jason's thoughts about the career path he did not pursue.

First appears in chapter 2

A psychologist at a guarded research facility who greets Jason as someone she knows intimately, although he has never met her. She notices that his behavior and memories do not match the man expected by the people around him.

First appears in chapter 2

The wealthy chief executive of Velocity Laboratories. He believes Jason is the physicist who founded the company's secret project and has returned after a long disappearance. He expects answers about an experiment that Jason does not remember conducting.

Also known as Jason2

First appears in chapter 4

A version of Jason who pursued quantum physics instead of marrying Daniela. He built the device at the center of Velocity's project and used it to search for a reality containing the family life he had given up.

First appears in chapter 8

A scientist associated with Velocity in the alternate Chicago. Jason and Amanda seek her in another reality, hoping that her experience with the box can help them understand how to navigate it.

Also known as The other Jasons

First appears in chapter 13

Further versions of Jason created by different choices during the journey through the box. Each considers himself the man who was abducted and many are determined to reclaim Daniela and Charlie, turning Jason's homecoming into a struggle among equally authentic claimants.