For those missing some truly heady sci-fi storytelling, you only have to wait a month for the return of Apple TV+’s critically-lauded adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation. And today the streamer released the full trailer for Season 2, which premieres July 14 on Apple TV+.
To help us parse out some of the finer details hidden within, executive producer David S. Goyer exclusively walks IGN through the action-packed visuals of the sophomore season.
Gaal, Hari and Salvor: The Heroes Rise
From the top, the trailer hails the return of Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell), Hari Seldon’s (Jared Harris) brilliant mathematics protégée and potential savior of the universe. It’s her voice that takes us through the initial visuals, and then warns that “this is even bigger than the last crisis.”
She’s referring to the First Crisis which was foretold in Seldon’s mathematical predictions about the destruction of the Galactic Empire at the hands of the long-ruling clones of Emperor Cleon I. In Season 1, Seldon tried to temper that imminent outcome by creating a repository of human knowledge, dubbed the Foundation, on Terminus. But it did not go well.
Goyer says that after the important character and story arc table-setting of Season 1, this season is very much about war, with a direct conflict between the Foundation and Empire. “Broadly speaking, I wanted to showcase the scope, the grand sense of adventure, and that it was an epic with a capital E,” Goyer says of what he wanted this trailer to convey. “And to also show that there are humans at the heart of it. That’s why the trailer very deliberately starts off in a darker place.”
With time being very fluid in the series, Goyer teases that Dornick, Seldon and her surprise daughter, Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey) — whom she first met in the first season finale — will have to come together to save humanity from the Second Crisis.
Gaal’s story was kind of siloed in Season 1 after Episode 2, and now it’s no longer. She’s reunited with Salvor.
“This [trailer] is more about the people that are in opposition to Empire, and the people that are trying to stop the darkness that’s going to happen once Empire falls,” Goyer explains. “Very deliberately, the [teaser] trailer was promoting Empire’s side of it. It was very Brother Day [Lee Pace] heavy. And this is much more about Hari, Gaal and Salvor. In fact, Gaal’s story was kind of siloed in Season 1 after Episode 2, and now it’s no longer. She’s reunited with Salvor. And I can’t tell people just exactly how she’s reunited with Hari, but she is…”
A Slip in Empire Power
Having retained power for more than four centuries, the Cleon clones — especially Brother Day — are more desperate than ever to hold onto their reign. As Day states in the trailer, the Foundation’s prognostications pose a threat to their very existence, and are the harbinger of their slipping control.
“By the time Season 2 has come around, the Foundation has actually spread to seven or eight worlds,” Goyer reveals. “They’re not just a single enclave on a single planet, so now they’re not just up against a few so-called barbarian planets. [The Foundation is] up against the entire might of Empire and the superluminal fleet. So the question is, how in Seldon’s name is the Foundation going to survive a direct threat from Empire itself?”
For clues, Goyer says to pay particular attention to the arid desert scenes that open the trailer, which is an ancient imperial holding that the Empire pulled up stakes from 6000 years ago. He names the massive stone statues in the distance behind Gaal as “The Monuments to Industry.” This world is the setting for a quest that Gaal and Salvor are tasked with by an individual they meet in Episode 1.
“I can’t say who that is yet,” he says cagily. “But they are drawn there for a very specific reason. Audiences will understand what happens on this world by the end of Episode 3. There is a very big surprise in store for them.”
Planets, Spaceships and Creatures, Oh, My!
Front-loaded into the opening seconds of the trailer are a surprising array of new worlds and creatures that cement the science fiction roots of the series. “Nothing says science fiction like space porn,” Goyer jokes about the purposeful reveal of those high-end visuals. “All the wonderful nebulae and black holes are much like the things that are coming out of the James Webb Space Telescope these days; or a spaceship, of which we have many more spaceships in this season than we did last season. And then the creatures, which are expensive, but alien fauna and flora are really important.”
Goyer reveals that the pack of running creatures at the eight-second mark are called Mega Shrikes. “They’re actually sort of a cross between a rhinoceros and a bird,” he says. “They migrate to a moon that shares its atmosphere with the planet that they’re on. The way they mate is that once a year, they go on this stampede. They spread their wings, and they fly up to the moon. And the one clue I’ll tell the audience is that these Mega Shrikes in this stampede take place on Helicon, Hari’s homeworld.”
As for the snarling beast that appears at the 24-second mark, Goyer is eager to clarify that it is not a space dragon, as he’s seen in some online speculation. “It’s actually a Bishop’s Claw, which we saw a few times in Season 1,” Goyer reveals. “It’s a predator on Terminus in Season 1. But 138 years later, some of these predators have been domesticated. And that particular one is the steed for a new character named Brother Constant [Isabella Laughland], who works for the Church of the Galactic Spirits.”
Characters From Asimov’s Books
Last but not least, Goyer says there are some visual hints included specifically for readers of Asimov’s books and novellas. In fact, there’s a big Easter egg at the 40-second mark, as the Vault foreshadows the introduction of a favorite Asimov character, Hober Mallow (Dimitri Leonidas). A resourceful trader, Goyer confirms that he will play a big part in the season.
“And the character that’s menacing Gaal,” he points out at 1:43. “That’s a character we’re calling ‘The Warlord of Kalgan.’ If anyone has read the books, that will give a hint as to who that character might be.”
Season 2 of Foundation premieres Friday, July 14 on Apple TV+.
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