like strings ‘Basis’‘For all mankind’, the last surprise hit’Silo‘ and in a way ‘Separation‘ has made Apple TV+ a reference platform for sci-fi lovers. The first of the quoted headlines is particularly ambitious: An adaptation of Asimov’s literary epic that combines the author’s Big Ideas with a healthy “dough” and an adventurous spirit and a majestic cinematic vision.
Let’s summarize for those who do not know the subject of ‘Foundation’. In the early days of the fall of a future Galactic Empire, mathematician Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) developed Psychohistory is the science of statistics that allows us to predict the future of humanity and to live in darkness for thirty thousand years after the fall of the Empire.. Seldon is seen as a traitor because of his pessimistic predictions, but he eventually gets permission to put into action a Galactic Encyclopedia plan (on the distant planet Terminus, but nothing less) that could reduce the crisis to just a millennium.
Season two picks up where the first season ended: 138 years ahead, Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell), Hari’s apprentice, Salvor Hardin (the daughter he didn’t know he had when he awoke in his cryogenic room)Leah Harvey), former guardian of the settlement of Terminus. Genetic Dynasty led by Brother Dia (the imposing Lee Speed) is still in a process of decay that can be accelerated from within by the actions of a vengeful queen. We will attend the beginning. The religious stage of the foundation: Creation of the Galactic Spirit Church.
own gravity weight
Asimov’s most unassuming fans have already assimilated the ‘Foundation’, a trilogy of novels, on the one hand, and ‘The Foundation’, the serialized ‘space opera’, on the other. David S. Goyer, co-creator and ‘showrunner’, known, among other things, as an ally of Christopher Nolan in the scripts of the Batman trilogy. “But I have to say that in some aspects of this season we are more faithful to the original books than ever before,” he explains in an interview via video call. “The Galactic Spirit Church was something that was part of the book. Or characters modeled in the image and likeness of Belisarius, such as the merchant Hober Mallow and General Bel Riose. We’re talking about Asimov’s three laws of robotics., something that has significance in the original material, and we wanted to honor it in these chapters. Having said all this, it is obvious that we have descended into our own personality. It’s like if you compare the Marvel comics to the MCU: as it goes on, the MCU falls under its own gravity.”
In the previous season, key characters were either gender-reversed or (well-considered in any case) Genetic Dynasty created. Join the squad now rachel house As Tellem Bond, a newly created character that “will serve to show the origins of the Second Foundation and its psionic powers.” Another innovation is the Jaegger Fountain. Holt McCallany, ex Bill Tench from ‘Mindhunter’. “I offered him two characters. I can’t say which, but it was bigger and more important and he turned it down. This new Terminus guardian wanted to be an extravagant American character.”
an overwhelming vision
The epic scope of the ‘Foundation’ vision makes us think of names like Christopher Nolan (the tesserae of this season’s first episode is returning to the shelf of ‘Interstellar’), Stanley Kubrick or Denis Villeneuve, and it’s true, Goyer recognizes them all as influences. “I would add David Lean and John Huston. Or Terence Malick. We shot anamorphic and tried to make the series as cinematic as possible.“Everything is tactile, everything is real.” An idea I shared with my friend Chris. [Nolan]: You should do as much as possible right in front of the camera. I’m not a big fan of filming actors in front of LED screens.”
Goyer prefers to take him to real places, including some “amazing and exotic” places in the Canary Islands. “I liked the scene where we introduced Brother Constant. [Isabella Laughland] and Poly Verisof [Kulvinder Ghir], clergy of the Galactic Spirit Church: that lava field in Lanzarote. We shot in many places where he left a mark. [el artista] Cesar Manrique“.
cold war again
What may be beautiful escapism is often a reflection of pressing political issues. “This is not something we’re after,” advises Goyer. “But my writers and I are people who care about what’s going on around us, and it’s normal for all of this to leak out. The most surprising thing was to find ourselves in a cold war context again. We weren’t there before I started writing. Russia had not yet invaded Ukraine. And suddenly we find ourselves in the same conditions that Asimov was in when he wrote his story about the collapse of civilization.. We are there again. This was also Asimov’s mission in a way: to remind us that history is cyclical.”