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Foundation: All Major Changes The Show Makes To Isaac Asimov’s Books

David Goyer’s Foundation TV series brings Isaac Asimov’s works to life on Apple TV+ — but it makes quite considerable changes along the way.

Warning: SPOILERS for Foundation episodes 1 and 2.

Isaac Asimov’s Foundation has been brought to life on the small screen — but many details have been changed from the books along the way. Asimov launched his iconic Foundation series of books and short stories back in 1942, and it had a profound influence on popular culture, blazing the trail for almost every science-fiction that followed. And yet, for all that’s the case, filmmakers and showrunners have struggled to bring Foundation to life. They’ve struggled to deal with the vast period of time encompassed by Asimov’s tale, with its initially-anthological structure, and with its cerebral concepts. But the advent of streaming, and the success of long-form TV shows like Game of Thrones, suggests the time has come for Foundation.

Apple TV+’s Foundation series is a lavish reinterpretation of Asimov’s stories. It’s created by showrunner David Goyer, who reveres the books but understands that what works well in one format will not in another. «I think the secret sauce for adapting Foundation was really rooting it in emotion,» he explained. «Really rooting it in character.» Although he hopes the fans will enjoy the show, he understands Foundation needs to appeal to more than just the fanbase, and so the key is to focus in on the characters. Given Asimov’s own stories are concept-driven, that means conducting substantial rewrites. It also means recognizing dramatic potential and exploiting it; the collapse of the Empire happens off-page in Asimov, but Foundation is unlikely to follow suit.

So what are the key differences between Foundation and the books and short stories that inspired it? Some are related to the characters, with Goyer adding an element of diversity that’s not present in Asimov’s works; some are conceptual, with the Emperor in particular being more developed; and some are dramatic, with the narrative changing in curious ways.

Several Major Characters Have Been Radically Redesigned

Anyone familiar with the books will immediately realize that several major characters have been switched up quite considerably — including the stars of the series. Gaal Dornick, played by Lou Llobell, is a perfect example; in the books Gaal is male, and there’s certainly no romance plot involving the mathematical prodigy. The differences go even deeper than that obvious surface-level change, though, because in the books Gaal Dornick is a celebrated mathematician from a world that seems rather more well-developed than the waterworld of Synnax in Foundation, older and more confident, having already earned a doctorate. Asimov didn’t spend much time on Synnax, and the first episode seems to allude to the planet’s being a lot more remote and potentially even superstitious than the books suggested.

Gaal Dornick isn’t the only one to have been changed significantly. Salvor Hardin has been gender-swapped as well, played by industry newcomer Leah Harvey, and she’s been reinvented as the Warden of Terminus rather than its mayor. This fundamentally alters the dynamics on Trantor, because Salvor’s role is a military one rather than an administrative one. In the books, Hardin was well-known for his many sayings, with the most famous being that «violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.» But Foundation‘s Salvor Hardin feels like a much more action-oriented character, suggesting her role going forward will be very different.

One other character has been gender-swapped as well; the Emperor’s adviser Eto Demerzel, played by Laura Birn. Eto is actually a tremendously important figure in Asimov’s books, because the legendary sci-fi author retconned this as an alias taken by the hero of his I, Robot books, R. Daneel Olivaw, who bound the two science-fiction franchises together. Asimov ultimately imagined Olivaw as the true architect of the Foundation, and even the one who had inspired Hari Seldon to discover psychohistory.

Raych Foss Is An Original Character (With An Old Name)

Alfred Enoch plays Raych Foss, an important secondary character in the first two episodes — Hari Seldon’s closest friend, and ultimately his killer. In a perverse twist of fate, while Raych is seemingly an original character created for Foundation, he appears to be named in honor of Hari’s own adoptive son from Asimov’s book series. In the prequel novel, «Forward The Foundation», Hari adopts Raych (who has no surname) at the age of 12, and he grows to adult age before being killed. Interestingly, at one point, Raych attempts to go undercover against Hari’s enemies, but it captured and reprogrammed to kill his own father — an assassination that is stopped in time. So the TV version of Raych is very different, though he does absorb some scenes involving other figures, such as Seldon’s lawyer. David Goyer has explained the key to Foundation lies in finding the emotions underpinning the narrative, and Raych serves an essential part in achieving that in the first two episodes, with his relationships with Hari Seldon and Gaal Dornick driving the story.

Foundation’s Emperor Is Totally Different From The Books

Asimov never concerned himself too much with the Emperor, with the books and short stories simply suggesting the latter Emperors were incompetent. Foundation has reinterpreted the Emperor by coming up with the idea of a sort of «genetic dynasty.» The Emperor Cleon I established a lineage of clones, with each raised to believe they represented the continuation of his will; the Emperor is thus the personification of the Empire’s permanency, constant and unchanging, ever-present and never-failing. In reality, of course, each Emperor grows up in the shadow of his predecessor, meaning they are more individual than they truly believe.

Lee Pace, who plays the Emperor, describes it as like being of two minds; «On one side of their mind, they believe they’re the same person. They actually believe this, and they believe that person is the Emperor of the galaxy. And on the other side of that mind, are a series of individuals who, whether they like it or not, are individuals. They do have sentience, they are distinguished from one another, and they’re looking at their brothers, and saying, «I’m better than you,» or, «I will be better than you, I will be a more honest Emperor than you, I will be a stronger Emperor than you, I will rule in a way that’s better than you.»‘ It’s a fascinating concept, one entirely alien to Isaac Asimov’s novels, but it’s not hard to see why Goyer invented it; the books and short stories span a millennium, and viewers need some constant faces to encourage familiarity.

The Terrorist Attacks On Trantor

The ecumenopolis of Trantor — which likely inspired similar city-planets like Coruscant in Star Wars — is lifted fairly accurately from Asimov’s books, but the orbital sky bridge is a new idea — one that soon proves to be of real importance to the story of Foundation, when terrorist attacks bring the bridge down around the planet like a garrote, shaking even the Emperor’s self-confidence. This terrorist attack is entirely original, but it serves a key role in the narrative, because it inspires the Emperor to fear that Hari Seldon may be right and sign off on the Foundation. It also potentially accelerates the downfall of the Empire, because in the books the Anacreons — one of the races the Empire blame for the terrorist attacks — rebel in an uprising that causes problems for the Foundation. The disturbing question is whether the Anacreons were actually responsible for the attacks in the first place; they seem rather convenient, and it’s possible Hari Seldon orchestrated them himself.

Hari Seldon’s Death Never Happened In The Books

In Asimov’s books and short stories, Hari Seldon lived to a ripe old age and left holographic messages behind in his latter years. Foundation‘s version of Hari is brutally murdered, however — killed by his friend Raych, for reasons that are initially unrevealed. It’s reasonable to assume this was something else Seldon arranged, perhaps because he believed the Foundation needed a martyr in order to be truly committed to his goals. Everything that spins out of Seldon’s death — notably including Gaal Dornick being placed in an escape pod in cryogenic suspension — is created just for the show, written into the story to add drama. There may well be another purpose, too; David Goyer has hinted he has come up with several ways to keep key characters around even as the story of Foundation moves ahead by decades, and it’s possible Gaal will be kept in cryogenic suspension for quite some time, with the pod serving as a convenient plot device.

The Vault Has Changed Considerably

The Vault is an important part of Asimov lore, but it has been fundamentally transformed for the TV series. In Asimov’s novels, the Vault was programmed to open at defining moments in galactic history, so-called «Seldon Crises,» and impart essential knowledge in order to orchestrate events across the millennium. It is reasonable to assume the Vault will serve the same purpose in the TV series as well, but here it was sent to Terminus ahead of the colonists, and it possesses a mysterious null field that keeps all living organisms away from it until it open. Salvor Hardin is mysteriously resistant to the null field, making her even more important to the story of Foundation, but that, too, is new.

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Everything We Know About Apple TV+’s Foundation So Far

In a new clip, showrunner David Goyer talks about the challenges of adapting «a story of ideas,» and how he pulled it off.

Apple TV+ has yet to truly stake its claim in the streaming wars by landing a tentpole hit, but judging by the early peeks at Foundation, that all may be about to change. Foundation is Apple TV+’s forthcoming blockbuster science fiction series based on the acclaimed novels of the same title by Isaac Asimov. With a distinguished sci-fi pedigree and a staggering budget, the series promises to be the streaming win that Apple TV+ has been chasing. Here’s everything we know so far.

What is Foundation About?

Foundation is adapted from the long-running series of the same title by science fiction titan Isaac Asmiov, who released seven installments over half a century. In 1966, the Foundation series, then just a trilogy, beat out The Lord of the Rings to earn the prestigious one-time Hugo Award for “Best All-Time Series.” The first installment centers on Hari Seldon, a mathematician who has spent his life developing the theory of psychohistory, a statistical process that can predict the future of large populations. Seldon is called to stand trial, where he predicts the imminent fall of the Galactic Empire, followed by a 30,000 year dark age before the rise of a Second Empire. Though the unfolding of events cannot be stopped, an alternative prediction promises a dark age of only one millennium, provided that Seldon is able to assemble a “Foundation of scientists and engineers, who together will create the Encyclopedia Galactica, a compendium of all human knowledge.» Seldon’s request is granted, though he and his fellow “Encyclopedists,” seen as doomsayers by the ruling family, are exiled to the remote planet of Terminus.

Fifty years later, Seldon is dead and Terminus is in freefall. A hologram left by Seldon informs Encyclopedists that the Encyclopedia Galactica was merely a ruse to assemble a population on Terminus, which is instrumental to reducing the dark age. As the Foundation on Terminus grows in power, developing newer and greater technologies that outstrip the capabilities of the Galactic Empire, an interplanetary showdown plays out between the warring planets, all of which are vying for galactic dominance.

Who Is In the Cast?

Emmy winner Jared Harris leads the cast as Hari Seldon, while Lee Pace appears as the Galactic Emperor Brother Day. Lou Llobell stars as Gaal, Lea Harvey as Salvor Hardin (an early leader of Terminus), Laura Birn as Demerzel (the aide to Brother Day), and Terrence Mann as Brother Dusk (the eldest member of the ruling family).

Blockbuster screenwriter David Goyer (the co-writer of The Dark Knight and Batman Begins) is the driving force behind the adaptation, serving as executive producer and showrunner. Robyn Asimov, Asimov’s daughter, is also an executive producer. In a recent interview, Goyer said of the adaptation:

In the decades since the Foundation series first saw print, Asimov’s prophetic science-fiction work has never been more relevant than it is now. Growing up, I devoured Foundation and dreamed of one day seeing it on screen — but a feature film didn’t seem big enough to embrace the ambition. Thanks to the broader landscape of streaming and a valuable partnership with Apple and Skydance, we are able to bring the series to the screen in a way that truly does it justice. Foundation has always been at the top of my bucket list and I’m honored I get to play a part in finally bringing it to life. Whether you’re a fan of the novels or simply someone craving a mind-blowing epic, I’m excited to share with you what we’ve created.

What Does the Trailer Reveal?

While previous teasers for the show have centered Hari Seldon, the full-length trailer introduces Gaal, a loyal follower and pupil of Seldon. We see Seldon explain psychohistory, describing it as, «The future of mankind expressed in numbers.» Seldon goes on to say, «The Empire won’t like the future I predict.» Seldon is right: the trailer cuts to ominous footage of explosions and warfare, with Brother Day plotting to murder Seldon.

Then, the titular foundation comes into play, with Seldon addressing a crowd: «Many years from now, if humanity is to climb from the ashes, the coming generations will need the knowledge to build upon: a foundation.» As war and violence rage, the characters debate what knowledge should be preserved, and what must be forgotten, teeing up an epic showdown between the Empire and the holdouts.

A previous trailer opened with an old man visiting a newborn suspended in a tank, saying, «I can’t be the first one who wanted to see my younger self.» This is Brother Dusk, the eldest member of the Cleon Genetic Dynasty, which rules the Galactic Empire. We cut to a throne room, where we see Brother Dusk, Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton), and Brother Day: three clones of Empire Cleon, who, as Brother Day reveals, «have reigned for almost four centuries.»

«The might of the Imperium has brought peace to thousands of worlds, but the beliefs of one man now threaten the empire’s very existence,» Brother Day intones. That man is none other than Seldon, who warns while standing trial, «Order will vanish. Wars will be endless.» The trailer goes on to tee up the epic conflict between Seldon and Brother Day, who seeks to destroy Seldon and his growing following as chaos reigns throughout the Galactic Empire.

In the final shot of this trailer, we glimpse Goyer’s ambitious take on the Vault, a mysterious floating object on Terminus that holds the key to the Foundation’s uprising. Salvor, the only character immune to the Vault’s dangerous «null field,» looks on.

«No one knows where it came from,» Goyer told EW. «It was there on Terminus when the colonists arrived and it’s one of the mystery boxes of the show. We’ll definitely find out what’s in the Vault in the season, although there are other mysteries to reveal about the Vault in later seasons. All we know is that Salvor has a very special relationship to the Vault.»

How Will the Show Be Different Than the Book?

Though Asimov purported to be a feminist, he and his works have come under fire for their scarce or underwritten female characters. Goyer seems to be making a concerted effort to reimagine the series’ sexual politics, gender-bending three male characters (Demerzel, Salvor, and Gaal) by reimagining them with female or non-binary actors.

In a new featurette about the process of adapting the novels, Goyer spoke about the monumental task of adapting this seminal work that shaped the science fiction genre, but never received its own big-screen adaptation. «Foundation is the greatest science fiction work of all time, and it’s never been brought to the screen before,» Goyer said. «It was such a phenomenal influence on the Star Wars universe. Even things like Dune were influenced by Foundation.»

Goyer went on to describe Foundation as «a story of ideas,» involving Hari Seldon’s «thousand-year chess game.» Throughout the decades, many have described the series as un-adaptable, owing to its heavy emphasis on ideas and philosophy over character-driven story. Goyer claims to have found a way around the eternal problem, saying, «The trick was figuring out how to take these weighty ideas that span millennia and make them emotional.»

When Will Foundation Come Out?

Foundation is set to land on September 24, 2021. Watch this space for updates as we continue to learn more.

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