The Dark Matter concept was created by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie while they were working on the Stargate franchise, and was originally published as a comic book series in 2012 before becoming a TV series.

Zoie Palmer plays both the ship's Android and, from the third season onward, the Android's creator Dr. Irena Shaw.

Wil Wheaton joined the recurring cast as Alex Rook, President and CEO of Dwarf Star Technologies.

Principal photography for the first season took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, running from January 9 to May 20, 2015.

Production on the second season ran from December 9, 2015 to May 6, 2016, and the third and final season began production on November 18, 2016.

According to series co-creator Joseph Mallozzi, Dark Matter was picked up by Syfy's acquisition division in New York but was not well received by the network's original programming division in Los Angeles, and despite outperforming several Syfy first-run programs, the network could not monetize it because it was an acquisition, leading to its cancellation.

While Rotten Tomatoes gave the first season a middling 68% approval rating, the show's reputation grew significantly, with both season 2 and season 3 achieving a 100% rating based on 7 reviews each.

The series premiere drew 273,000 overnight viewers on Canada's Space channel and 1.28 million viewers on Syfy in the United States.