Dark Season 3 release date, plot, and more on Netflix's time-travel drama

This article about Season 3 of the series Dark was originally published on June 24, 2019 and updated on May 24, 2021 following the release of the season on Netflix. Read on for the original article, with some new changes to reflect the latest updates on this topic.

Netflix’s twisty German-language sci-fi series Dark took viewers to multiple time periods; introduced the villainous time-traveling crusaders known as Sic Mundus; and wove together the stories of various characters to not only make this story about time travel even more complex than it already was, but to also make it evident that fans still have no idea exactly how everything is connected. Maybe Dark Season 3 will finally clear everything up?

Dark takes place in the rural town of Winden, Germany, an industrial town whose residents are born, live, and frequently die there. The series focuses on four families in particular — the Nielsens, the Kahnwalds, the Dopplers, and the Tiedemanns — and spotlights multiple generations of each family over the course of a century. The action begins when multiple children go missing in present-day Winden, causing a handful of characters, including series protagonist Jonas Kahnwald, to investigate where the children went and why it’s been happening. As each of the characters probes further to discover the truth, revelations about the nature of time travel and just how deeply each person’s fate is entwined with Winden’s fate come to the surface. By the end of Season 2, every character is faced with an impending nuclear apocalypse that threatens to stop them all in their tracks.

Here’s everything we know about the third (and final) season of Dark.

Was Dark Season 3 its final season?

Yes. Netflix officially renewed the series on May 30, 2019, before Season 2 even released. But the streaming service also confirmed that Season 3 would be its last.

When did Dark Season 3 film?

Dark series creator Baran bo Odar confirmed on his Instagram on May 30 that production on Season 3 had begun. Odar shared a photo of the title page from a Dark Season 3 script, writing in the captions that filming would take place over four weeks, meaning filming would finish the first week of July 2019.

He also commemorated the first day of Season 3 filming, which took place on June 1, by sharing a photo of the crew at various shooting locations, including the well-established location of the Winden cave entrance regularly shown in Dark.

When was the Dark Season 3 release date?

Dark Season 3 was released on June 27, 2020. That’s just about a year after Season 2 came out in 2019.

Is there a trailer for Dark Season 3?

Yes! Netflix released the official trailer for the final season of Dark on June 12, 2020.

How many episodes did Dark Season 3 Have?

Dark Season 3 had 8 episodes. That is the same number as Season 2.

Who returned for Dark Season 3?

Let’s be real, this is a show about time travel, and it’s been established that it’s possible for characters who have been killed at one point in time to still reappear in another time. That means no actors are officially out of the series because characters can resurface in any capacity necessary to tell the story.

That being said, here is everyone from the main cast who returned for Season 3 of Dark:

• Louis Hofmann, Andreas Pietschmann, and Dietrich Hollinderbäumer as “Jonas Kahnwald”
• Maja Schöne as “Hannah Kahnwald”
• Lisa Vicari as “Martha Nielsen”
• Moritz Jahn as “Magnus Nielsen”
• Daan Lennard Liebrenz as “Mikkel Nielsen”
• Oliver Masucci as “Ulrich Nielsen”
• Jördis Triebel as “Katharina Nielsen”
• Gina Stiebitz and Carina Wiese as “Franziska Doppler”
• Carlotta von Falkenhayn and Sandra Borgmann as “Elisabeth Doppler”
• Stephan Kampwirth as “Peter Doppler”
• Karoline Eichhorn as “Charlotte Doppler”
• Paul Lux as “Bartosz Tiedemann”
• Deborah Kaufmann as “Regina Tiedemann”
• Peter Benedict as “Aleksander Tiedemann”
• Julika Jenkins as “Claudia Tiedemann”
• Max Schimmelpfennig and Mark Waschke as “Noah”
• Lea van Acken as “Silja Tiedemann”

How did Dark Season 2 end?

So. Much. Happens. At. The. End. Of. Dark Season 2. The Season 2 finale sets up a few key storylines for Season 3, so we’ll break them down to make it a bit more digestible. Just keep in mind that all of the following events happen simultaneously and are happening with a nuclear apocalypse about to go down.

• The younger Noah informs the older Jonas that he needs to save teenage Bartosz, Magnus, and Franziska by using his time machine to get them to safety. All three teenagers will apparently be vital to the future of Sic Mundus, and Jonas, who will transform into Sic Mundus leader Adam at some point in his future, is responsible for keeping them alive. Older Jonas balks at the task until Noah gives him a letter from Martha, who Jonas believed was dead because she died just moments before the apocalypse in the previous time cycle Jonas lived through. We don’t see what Martha wrote to Jonas, but it’s enough to convince him to whisk Bartosz, Magnus, and Franziska to safety at the very last moment. It’s unknown what time they travel to, but it could be 1921, the time period Sic Mundus sets up shop in and operates from.
• Katharina Nielsen was hell-bent throughout Season 2 to get her youngest child, Mikkel, back after he mysteriously disappeared in Season 1. (It was revealed Mikkel traveled back to 1986 and stayed there, eventually growing up to be Jonas’ father, Michael.) Katharina manages to find the maps younger Jonas and her husband, Ulrich, were using to explore the Winden caves. As the nuclear meltdown inches nearer and nearer, Katharina manages to find one of the Sic Mundus doors in the Winden caves, which could lead her back to 1987 and to Mikkel. The only problem is: If she manages to find Mikkel and bring him back to a time that isn’t 1987, how will Mikkel’s absence affect the future? It would immediately mean Jonas isn’t born, and if Jonas isn’t born, everything we’ve seen over the course of two seasons would be drastically altered.
• Adam has begun the third time cycle, progressing Sic Mundus in their war against time and their quest to establish dominance over it. Adam achieved this by tricking the younger Jonas into traveling to 2019 to try to convince his father, Michael, not to kill himself, believing Michael’s death started all of the events we’ve seen over two seasons. It was a trick from Adam, who needed Jonas to be in 2019 and with Martha so he could shoot Martha, giving Jonas the emotional burden necessary to fight to create Sic Mundus, eventually become Adam, and continue the time war. Whew … how is this an actual sentence?
• Who survives the nuclear apocalypse in Winden, and what happens in the immediate aftermath of the blast? We know most of Winden’s citizens will die. Still, Franziska Doppler’s father, Peter, and her younger sister, Elisabeth, will survive the blast because they took shelter in the bunker on the Doppler family cottage property. Claudia Tiedemann from 1987 traveled to 2019 to see her daughter, Regina, and both ended up taking shelter in the bunker, too. Finally, young Noah from 1921 took shelter in the bunker, sharing some intense, knowing eye contact with Elisabeth (who is no more than 10 in Season 2 and is already being established as a love interest for a teenager of maybe 16 or 17 who also happens to be from 1921 and … what?!) as if they’re going to become an item in the wake of the apocalypse.
• The most tantalizing reveal involved the arrival of alternate dimension Martha, who came to save the younger Jonas from the nuclear apocalypse. Arriving after the established Martha had been shot and killed by Adam, alternate dimension Martha tells Jonas the right question to ask her is not what time she is from, but rather what world. Dark opens up the story even further with that final line, revealing more than one dimension exists.

What time periods were covered in Dark Season 3?

Dark Season 3 continued to widen the time periods covered by the sci-fi series. The final season spanned from 1888 all the way to 2053. Every episode featured some mash-up of the various time periods across various characters (or at least versions of them).

How can I watch Dark Season 3?

You can watch Dark Season 3, as well as Seasons 1 and 2, on Netflix.

Dark Season 3 is currently streaming on Netflix.