News culture The most ambitious sci-fi series ever made isn’t on Netflix. Season 2 is coming in a few days!
Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ dominate the SVOD market in 2023. However, other players are managing to find a place for themselves. Apple TV+ is one of them, and the sci-fi series we’re interested in today testifies to the streaming service’s growing ambitions.
A major work of SF
Before getting to the heart of the matter and addressing the Apple TV + series, it is worth paying tribute to the literary work without which the adaptation project simply would not exist. Foundation (or Foundation by its original title) is a science fiction novel written by Isaac Asimov. Composed of 5 short stories, 4 of which were pre-published in Astounding Science-Fiction magazine between 1942 and 1944, the book was truly published for the first time in 1951. If Asimov’s name resonates with you, that’s normal. This North American author is at the origin of the term “robotics” which is now part of everyday language, but also of the laws of robotics with The Cycle of Robots.
To return to Foundation, this novel is the first stone brought to the Cycle of Foundation whose origins rest on a trilogy: Fondation (Foundation, 1951), Foundation and Empire (Foundation and Empire, 1952) and finally Second Foundation (Second Foundation, 1953). Over the decades, this saga has been enriched by several literary works, both sequels and prequels.
Here is the chronological order of reading (and not publication) of the Foundation Cycle:
- Prelude to Foundation
- Dawn of Foundation
- Fondation
- Foundation and Empire
- Second Foundation
- Blasted Foundation
- Earth and Foundation
An adaptation by Apple TV+
Apple TV+’s love of science fiction is well established. With its For All Mankind series, the SVOD service obtained its letters of nobility and the Foundation series ultimately only underlined its know-how in this area. We find at the head of this titanic project the showrunners David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman, two feathers who have exercised their talent on major projects. The former held the role of screenwriter on the Dark Knight trilogy directed by Christopher Nolan and even initiated the late DC Extended Universe alongside Zack Snyder with Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The second is illustrated on the underestimated series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and more recently Avatar: The way of the water.
Broadcast between September 24 and November 19, 2021 with one episode per week, season 1 of Foundation has a total of 10 episodes. From October 2021, Apple TV renewed the series for a second season also consisting of 10 episodes, still broadcast weekly. Foundation is not a one-to-one adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s novel. The series is inspired by the literary work, but goes its own way. To bring the characters of this modern vision to life, the cast is led by Jared Harris (Chernobyl, Mad Men), Lee Pace (The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Guardians of the Galaxy), Lou Llobell (Voyagers) and Leah Harvey (Les Miserables). Here is the official synopsis of the series Foundation (or Foundation) on Apple TV+:
Based on the award-winning novels of Isaac Asimov, Foundation chronicles the extraordinary journey of a band of exiles to save humanity and rebuild civilization during the fall of the Galactic Empire. -AppleTV+
Season 2 of Foundation will premiere July 14, 2023 exclusively on Apple TV+ and will end after 10 episodes on September 15.
