Epic adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation premieres on Apple TV+ in fall 2021

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Foundation is coming to Apple TV+ next year.
Foundation on Apple TV+ will be a mix of Star Wars and Game of Thrones.
Photo: Apple/Skydance Television

Apple TV+’s ambitious version of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series is reportedly scheduled for fall of 2021. Previously, all we’ve known is a vague promise from Apple that the sprawling sci-fi epic is “coming soon.”

In addition, the series is expected to extend over dozens of episodes.

Apple TV+ is thinking big

Foundation is perhaps the most high-profile project for Apple TV+. The original novels were ground-breaking science-fiction, and influenced Star Wars and other series.

Writer and showrunner David S. Goyer and executive producer Michael Malone recently gave interviews with LovinMalta about the upcoming TV series. The Mediterranean island offers enormous water tanks to portray a water planet in the show.

Goyer talked about the appeal of what’s he’s helping to create. “I think there’s definitely a resurgence in the sci-fi genre,” said Goyer. “Typically what happens when times are tough, people look to the genre for a form of escapism. We are also seeing the advent of online streaming. The audience is changing the way we are consuming stories.”

Filming on Malta is still going on, despite the pandemic. And that’s not all— the show is the largest studio production in the history of Ireland.  When season one production is complete, ten episodes of Foundation are scheduled for autumn 2021 as an Apple TV+ exclusive. And the current plan is for 70 more episodes.

Firm details about Foundation

For those unfamiliar with the highly acclaimed stories published in the 1940s and 1950s, Apple says its show is “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.”

Jared Harris will play Hari Seldon, a mathematical genius and head of the Foundation who predicts the fall of the Galactic Empire but creates a way to shorten the millennia of chaos that is sure to follow it. Lee Pace will portray the Emperor of the Galaxy.

Apple TV+ released a teaser trailer in 2020. Watch it now.

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