The first season of “Foundation” ended in Nov. 2021, it’s now 2023. So you’re forgiven if you’d forgotten this beautiful show exists. Consider yourself reminded, as Apple TV+ announced Wednesday the series — adapted from the groundbreaking science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov — will return for its second season this summer.
Of course, we don’t know precisely when this summer, but there’s also a neat first teaser for “Foundation” Season 2 to tide you over. You can watch it above right now.
It’s mostly vibes of course, but as you can see, Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey) and Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell) are still really worried about where things are headed. And yes, the latest Brother Day clone of Emperor Cleon is still the most handsome despot in the galaxy, which is exactly what you’d expect since he’s played by Lee Pace.
Returning from Season 1 alongside Harvey, Llobell and Pace are Jared Harris as Dr. Hari Seldon (or rather, his holographic recreation), Laura Birn as the robot Demerzel, Terrence Mann as older Cleon clone Brother Dusk and Cassian Bilton as younger Cleon clone Brother Dawn.
“Foundation” has also added some new faces for its second season. Isabella Laughland joins as Brother Constant), and she’s presumably somehow related to the male members of the Genetic Dynasty. Kulvinder Ghir will play Poly Verisof. Sandra Yi Sencindiver portrays Enjoiner Rue. Ella-Rae Smith plays Queen Sareth of Cloud Dominion. Dimitri Leonidas plays Hober Mallow. Ben Daniels plays brilliant (and doomed) Gen. Bel Roise. Holt McCallany plays Warden Jaegger Fount. Rachel House portrays Tellem Bond. And Nimrat Kaur portrays Yanna Seldon.
Season 1 loosely adapted the story outlined in the original novel’s first three segments, “The Psychohistorians,” “The Enclyclopedists” and “The Mayors,” along with material from the prequels Asimov wrote decades later. Catching you all up, mathematician Hari Seldon (Harris) discovered proof that the 12,000 year-old Galactic empire was rotting from within and will collapse in just a few centuries, leading to 30,000 years of galaxy-wide anarchy. Spared execution in his treason trial, he and several hundreds of his followers were instead exiled to a distant corner of the galaxy to establish a scientific colony devoted to compiling a comprehensive record of the total knowledge of civilization for the benefit of some future civilization.
Except it turns out that the true purpose of the Foundation is to form the basis for a new galaxy-wide civilization, as soon as possible, once the empire has died. Meanwhile, the empire begins its long, painful decline under the “Genetic Dynasty” of clones of the original Emperor Cleon (one of the show’s many original contributions), who are unequipped to confront the myriad crises happening more and more often.
Based on the new characters, Season 2 will adapt the rest of the original “Foundation,” with at least some of the second book, “Foundation and Empire,” thrown in. Could we also get some glimpses of The Mule and the Second Foundation? We’ll all find out this summer.
Produced for Apple by Skydance Television, “Foundation” is led by showrunner and executive producer David S. Goyer, with Robyn Asimov, Alex Graves, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Bill Bost also serving as executive producers.
