Foundation TV Series Adds to Cast

More cast members have joined leads Jared Harris and Lee Pace on the Apple TV+ adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation.

Well, they’re trying to adapt Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series for TV again. Foundation was headed for HBO back in 2014 with Jonathan Nolan at the helm, but that version vanished into space. But now David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight) and Josh Friedman (Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles) are tackling the extraordinarily dense and cerebral series for Skydance Television. David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Marcy Ross, and Robyn Asimov will serve as executive producers.

Asimov’s core three Foundation novels, Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation are all worth your time. There’s a secondary group of sequels, too, but really, these are the big three you should be concerned with. Any one of these books contains enough character and world building to fill multiple seasons of TV, so hopefully, Goyer, Friedman, and Apple TV+ will figure out how to bring Hari Seldon and friends to the screen properly this time.

Foundation Cast

Foundation is beginning to fill in its cast as production nears, according to a recent Deadline announcement. Among the series regulars are Lou Llobell (Voyagers), who will play Gaal, “a mathematical genius from a rural, repressed planet,” and Leah Harvey (Les Miserables), who will take on the role of Salvor, “the protective and intuitive warden of a remote outer planet.”

Also among the regular cast members are Laura Birn (The Innocents), Terrence Mann (Sense8) and Cassian Bilton (A Devil’s Harmony). Birn will portray Demerzel, “the enigmatic aide to the Emperor;” Mann will play Brother Dusk, “the eldest living member of the ruling family;” and Bilton will be Brother Dawn, “the youngest living member of the ruling family, next in line to be Brother Day.”

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These new cast members join the previously announced lead actors, Jared Harris (The Expanse) and Lee Pace (Captain Marvel). Harris will play the central figure in the Foundation mythos, Hari Seldon, “a mathematical genius who predicts the demise of the empire,” and Pace will play Brother Day, “the current Emperor of the Galaxy.”

Foundation Story

Here’s the logline for the Foundation TV series:

“The series chronicles the thousand year saga of The Foundation, a band of exiles who discover that the only way to save the Galactic Empire from destruction is to defy it.”

This would appear to be part of the resurrection of classic science fiction on TV. Syfy aired a Childhood’s End miniseries (based on the brilliant Arthur C. Clarke novel) in 2015, and they’re currently working on an adaptation of Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. And then there’s the small matter of Denis Villeneuve working on a multi-picture Dune adaptation for the big screen. Let’s get some more of these in the pipeline, please.

We’ll update this with more information as it becomes available.

Mike Cecchini is the Editor in Chief of Den of Geek. You can read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @wayoutstuff.