The emperor doesn’t like that, so Hari and his followers - including fellow numbers whiz Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell), who won a galaxy-wide math competition just to meet Hari - are exiled to a cold, mostly barren planet at the far reaches of the known universe. As the universe’s foremost expert on psychohistory, he reveals that the Galactic Empire, run by a constant succession of clones (each of which is played by a menacing Lee Pace), is approaching its downfall, which will be followed by thousands of years of barbarism. In this world, that means you can whip out a calculator to predict the future in broad strokes, which is exactly what a man named Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) does.
At the center of Foundation’s story is something called psychohistory, which is a way of using mathematics to analyze the behaviors of large populations. To start, the main “character” isn’t actually a person, but rather a kind of math. But it’s also a pretty weird story, one where you’ll spend more time seeing people doing calculations than anything resembling action.Īhead of the premiere, Verge editors Chaim Gartenberg and Andrew Webster were able to watch the first two episodes to determine just how interesting a space epic about math can really be.Īndrew: It’s not easy to sum up what Foundation is about, but I’ll try. Goyer recently said that he’s plotted out eight seasons already. Apple clearly has big plans for it showrunner David S. You can tell it’s expensive in every frame. It’s also a lavish production, with incredible special effects and gorgeous production design. It’s a story about the downfall of a galactic empire, with lots of political intrigue to follow. In many ways, Foundation fits that tentpole epic formula quite well.
(New episodes will debut weekly on Apple TV Plus after that.)
Netflix has The Witcher, Amazon is spending an unseemly amount on Lord of the Rings, and Apple has Foundation, a sci-fi series based on the classic Isaac Asimov novels that kicks off with two episodes on September 24th. This is especially true in the world of streaming. Ever since Game of Thrones, every network seems to want something similar: an expensive genre epic that they can point to as our big thing.