Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Entertainment
  3. News

Foundation: The first look at the Apple TV+ series based on Asimov’s books

By
Foundation — Teaser | Apple TV+

Apple debuted the first look at its upcoming adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s celebrated sci-fi saga Foundation during its WWDC 2020 event on June 22.

Recommended Videos

Expected to premiere in 2021, the series is based on Asimov’s seminal series of novels that chronicled the fall of the wide-reaching Galactic Empire and how psychohistory — a branch of mathematics that predicts the future — shapes several generations’ efforts to rebuild human civilization. The cast of Foundation is led by acclaimed actor Jared Harris in the role of Hari Seldon, the creator of the branch of mathematics known as psychohistory.

Along with Harris in one of the saga’s most important roles, the series’ cast also includes Lee Pace as Brother Day, Lou Llobell as Gaal, Leah Harvey as Salvor, Laura Birn as Demerzel, Terrence Mann as Brother Dusk, and Cassian Bilton as Brother Dawn.

Foundation was snatched up by Apple in April 2018 as one of several high-profile projects the company collected ahead of the launch of Apple TV+. The project was given a straight-to-series order by producers Skydance Television, with David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight, Batman Begins) and Josh Friedman (Avatar 2, War of the Worlds) attached as showrunners and executive producers alongside Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Marcy Ross.

Asimov’s story is regarded as one of the touchstone projects in the sci-fi genre, inspiring many of Hollywood’s most famous films, including the Star Wars saga. The first three novels in the series — collectively known as the Foundation trilogy, although Asimov penned sequels many years later — covered thousands of years of history leading up to, during, and following the fall of the Galactic Empire. The series explored the nature of predetermination and the conflict between science and religion, among other themes.

Apple has not revealed the exact premiere date for Foundation on Apple TV+.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Rick Marshall
Rick Marshall
Former Digital Trends Contributor
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
Don’t watch the 2024 Super Bowl, watch these 3 great TV shows instead
Jodie Foster and Kali Reis stand in the snow together in True Detective: Night Country.

The Super Bowl is great if you're someone who loves football, food, or commercials. For the rest of us who won't be tuning into the big game, though, it's not like there's nothing else to watch. We're living in an era where the problem most people have is that they are subscribed to too many services, and have no idea how to choose what to watch.

If you're in that boat, and you don't think you're going to spend any Sundays watching football soon, then you're in luck. We've picked out three recent series that are all worth checking out, and will make for great viewing if you're not planning to tune in to watch grown men throw a ball around a field.

Read more
5 underrated 2023 TV shows you need to watch in 2024
The Preacher with his army behind him in a scene from Twisted Metal.

Class of '07 - Official Trailer | Prime Video

The most talked-about shows in 2023 included  HBO’s The Last of Us, Peacock’s Poker Face, Netflix’s The Fall of the House of Usher, and Apple TV+’s Silo. There are only so many hours in a day to watch everything, though, which means others might have fallen by the wayside. The following shows probably ended up on your “that looks interesting” list, only to never actually be watched. Don’t worry, there’s still time.

Read more
Has Apple TV+ become the new home of Prestige TV?
Callum Turner and Austin Butler stand near a plane in Masters of the Air.

Masters of the Air is the third and final installment in the trilogy of World War II TV dramas that Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg have been producing for well over 20 years now. Their efforts began with 2001’s Band of Brothers and continued with 2010’s The Pacific, both of which took home the Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries in their respective years. Both aired on HBO, which was seen at the time as the only place where expensive, truly prestige miniseries like them could be made. A lot’s changed since then.

Case in point: Masters of the Air isn’t an HBO production. The miniseries, which follows the members of the real-life 100th Bomb Group and their bombing efforts in Nazi-controlled regions of WWII-era Europe, premiered last week on Apple TV+. It isn’t any less expensive or star-studded than Band of Brothers and The Pacific. On the contrary, one could argue that it’s an even bigger series than either of those two dramas. Why, then, was Spielberg and Hanks’ most ambitious WWII miniseries to date made for Apple TV+ rather than HBO, the home of its two sister shows?

Read more