What would you do if your civilisation was about to come to an end? In the latest trailer for AppleTV+’s Foundation, a whole lot of people are about to find out. And it doesn’t look pretty.
AppleTV+ has released the latest trailer for Foundation, a new sci-fi series based on Isaac Asimov’s award-winning saga. It stars Chernobyl’s Jared Harris as a mathematician named Hari Seldon, who uses the law of mass action and statistical mechanics to predict the future. He discovers that the galactic empire run by a self-sustaining clone dynasty is doomed to collapse, and so he starts amassing a following of people determined to preserve humanity’s “legacy” for the coming Dark Ages. This movement strikes fear into the empire’s leaders — including Lee Pace’s Brother Day, the clone at the centre of the ruling trio — who take it upon themselves to stop Harris and his devotees at any cost.
This latest trailer shows the saga’s dramatic influence on other famous sci-fi stories, like Star Wars and Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming Dune adaptation, while reminding audiences just how more pertinent Asimov’s work itself is in 2021. Asimov’s books may have come out half a century ago, but its message feels more relevant than ever. As the Pacific Northwest battles record heat temperatures and the world still battles an ongoing (and continually evolving) covid-19 pandemic, one can’t help but wonder whether the events of Foundation may come sooner rather than later. Only difference, I suppose, would be the future seems to have way more clones in command. Also space lasers.
Foundation also stars Leah Harvey as Salvor, Laura Birn as Demerzel, Terrence Mann as Brother Dusk, and Cassian Bilton as Brother Dawn. It debuts on Apple’s streaming service on September 24.