Foundation Teaser Trailer

Apple TV+ has dropped a teaser trailer for its adaptation of Asimov’s series, Foundation.

Based on the award-winning novels by Isaac Asimov, Foundation chronicles a band of exiles on their monumental journey to save humanity and rebuild civilization amid the fall of the Galactic Empire: https://apple.co/_Foundation Foundation stars SAG Award-winner and Emmy-nominee Jared Harris as Hari Seldon; Lee Pace as Brother Day; Lou Llobell as Gaal; Leah Harvey as Salvor; Laura Birn as Demerzel; Terrence Mann as Brother Dusk; and Cassian Bilton as play Brother Dawn.

13 thoughts on “Foundation Teaser Trailer

  1. Not convinced by this at all. Jared Harris isn’t my idea of Hari Seldon, but he’s a fine actor and I don’t mind him. Lee Pace gets to play a galactic dictator – again. Salvor Hardin looks much too young (and has changed gender and race, but there is no reason why Salvor Hardin has to be a white man. However, an approx. 25-year-old Salvor Hardin does not work) and also wasn’t a contemporary of Seldon, but was mayor during the first Seldon crisis approx. 30 years later. I think the show has conflused Hardin with the what’s his name from the very first story. I also hope that they did notice the hints in the actual story that Hober Mallow is not white (and not straight either).

    Frankly, I would have preferred if Foundation had never been adapted at all, because it is a very difficult series to adapt. It takes place over a span of 500 years (more, if you include the substandard 1980s sequels) and the entire cast would have to change every couple of episodes, so the only constant is Hari Seldon or rather his hologram. Then there is the issue that there are hardly any female characters until halfway through the trilogy, which means that the producers will have to gender-flip characters (which they seem to have done) or introduce additional female characters.

    Also, Asimov wasn’t a particularly visual writer. His stories, particularly the ones that make up Foundation, are often talky and low on action, which is probably why Asimov is so difficult to adapt and almost every adaptation gets it wrong.

  2. Salvor Hardin looks much too young (and has changed gender and race, but there is no reason why Salvor Hardin has to be a white man.

    I think that’s supposed to be Gaal Doornick, not Mallow. Doornick would have just finished their PhD, and just got hired by Trantor University at the time of “The Psychohistorians,” so a 26-year-old is not out of the question. IIRC, the stories do not specify a skin colour for Doornick, though Seldon himself is described as having blue eyes. Jared Harris fits the role IMHO.

    It looks to me like the whole first season is set during the era of Forward The Foundation & The Psychohistorians. They might get to “The Encyclopedists” in the first season, but I wouldn’t count on it.

  3. In terms of Salvor Hardin, I always pictured him as hispanic (to my ear, the name “Salvor” always sounded like a version “Salvador”.)

    But I may be mistaken on this.

  4. I think that’s supposed to be Gaal Doornick, not Mallow. Doornick would have just finished their PhD, and just got hired by Trantor University at the time of “The Psychohistorians,” so a 26-year-old is not out of the question. IIRC, the stories do not specify a skin colour for Doornick, though Seldon himself is described as having blue eyes. Jared Harris fits the role IMHO.

    Going by the trailer, I also would have assumed that the young woman is supposed to be Gaal Dornick (thanks for remembering the name), but at one point in the trailer she is called Salvor.

  5. @Cora Buhlert
    Going by the trailer, I also would have assumed that the young woman is supposed to be Gaal Dornick (thanks for remembering the name), but at one point in the trailer she is called Salvor.

    I just watched the trailer three times in a row trying to find that reference, and listened to every line closely. Nobody says the name “Salvor,” nor the name “Hardin.”

  6. I hope they take-liberties-with-the-plot-and-characters the sh*t out of it. I loved the Foundation trilogy but it’s terribly thin material to spin a TV series out of. Looks good and so long as they nail the breadth of it, I don’t mind if they do all sorts of things to add to the depth.

  7. Peeps, if you switch on the subtitles you get the character’s names on the front of their dialogue. Also, the actor names are included in the article text linked with their character names, and you can google them to see the faces and confirm which one is which.

  8. I read all of it some thirty years. And parts of it again a decades ago.Though I’ve no overarching desire to read it again, I thought that it was exceptionally well-crafted. If only for how they depict that Universe, I’ll watch it at least several episodes.

  9. They had me at a Jared Harris.

    They’ve also cast a woman as Eto Demerzel… who is also <rot13>Nee Qnarry Byvinj</rot13>. I like the cut of this show’s jib.

  10. Meredith on June 22, 2020 at 6:20 pm said:
    Peeps, if you switch on the subtitles you get the character’s names on the front of their dialogue. Also, the actor names are included in the article text linked with their character names, and you can google them to see the faces and confirm which one is which.

    Good call.

    They seem to have edited the subtitles between last night and this morning. Last night, the phrase “Only We Can Shorten The Darkness” was attributed to Salvor. This morning, it’s attributed to Gaal. So I think their social media team is a bit confused.

    And both of those characters are played by black women. 26-year-old Leah Harvey is playing Salvor Hardin. 25-year-old Lou Llobell is playing Gaal Dornick. So they have the right character talking to Hari Seldon, and the subtitles are incorrect.

Comments are closed.