There’s a new crisis, and it’s that there’s not enough Lee Pace in this trailer. I kid, I kid… or do I? Apple’s Foundation is a weird show with a great cast—a cast that orbits around Pace’s tyrannical space emperor. But the Foundation itself is something else, and it seems like season two might—might?—feel a little more focused on said Foundation, which exists to rebuild civilization after the fall of Pace’s empire.
No pressure.
Foundation is based on the writing of Isaac Asimov. The first season was interestingly loose, jumping between characters that include Jared Harris as Hari Seldon, a brilliant mathematician; Lou Llobell as Gaal, Seldon’s troubled protegee; Leah Harvey as the quietly compelling Salvor Hardin, warden of a key group of exiles; Laura Birn as a very stressed android; and Pace as Brother Day, one of three cloned emperors (Terrence Mann and Cassian Bilton play Brothers Dusk and Dawn). But that doesn’t even get into the religious sect Brother Day visits; the mysterious gardener Brother Dawn gets close to; or a whole fistful of other subplots.
The show works as a character drama; the plot gets muddy, and doesn’t feel like the math works (sorry, Hari). But Apple is confident enough in the show that it renewed Foundation when the first season was barely started. (Creator David S. Goyer has said he has an eight-season plan.) Season two sees expanding crises and an expanding cast, with ten new roles announced last year; they include a handful of members of the Church of the Galactic Spirit, a queen, a general, a warlord, and a master trader. A volatile mix, sounds like.
Foundation returns this summer.
