'We Act, or We Lose' - 'Foundation' Season 3 Arrives July 11th
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It's been nearly two years since Apple wrapped the second season
of Foundation, its epic, galaxy-spanning sci-fi hit. Now, it's
about to launch the next chapter in the thousand-year-saga.

Apple just released an official two-minute teaser to announce
that Foundation Season 3 will premiere on July 11 on Apple TV+.
We don't know much beyond what's in the teaser, as Apple has yet
to issue a press release. The series also differs significantly
from the Isaac Asimov series that inspired it, making it
difficult to predict anything more than the broadest strokes.

The teaser shows the return of all the key characters from
season 2, along with an expanded role for the Warlord of Kalgan,
otherwise known as The Mule, who made only the briefest of
appearances in season 2. Nevertheless, the hate-filled monster
made his ominous presence felt in a near-perfect setup to take
the lead as the major villain in season 3.

YouTube (1min 50secs)
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bMCpnEi4k0>

As with the transition between the first two seasons, the third
installment will take another significant time leap, occurring
152 years after the events of Season 2. This aligns with a
flash-forward we saw at the end of the last season.

'Kiss the Void, Gentlemen'
As chronicled in Asimov's books, the first Galactic Empire has
effectively fallen, and the Mule rises from its ashes, a powerful
mentalic mutant who tries to subject the universe to his whims
through physical, military, and psychic force.

Based on how Foundation has played out so far, it's hard to know
what direction this will take. Executive Producer David S. Goyer
has taken quite a few liberties in interpreting Asimov's novels,
using the Foundation universe, characters, and overarching plots
to tell a fundamentally different narrative from the books.

This creative license has been necessary, and it's likely
Foundation would have flopped had Goyer tried to stay too faithful
to the original material. Others have tried and failed, including
HBO, which attempted an adaptation years ago that never made it
beyond the initial concept stages despite having Interstellar
co-writer and Westworld executive producer Jonathan Nolan at the
helm.

'No Future Lasts Forever'
In addition to the fact that Asimov was better at writing about
concepts and ideas than people, it's hard to translate a series to
a visual medium when it covers a galaxy-sprawling empire of
500 quadrillion people across millions of inhabited worlds and
takes place over a thousand years.

While Asimov saw the individual characters who lived and died
throughout the Galactic Empire's history as merely small pieces of
a broader narrative, it's hard to build continuity in a show where
the entire cast of characters changes as you skip a century or two
ahead each season.

To solve this, Goyer found several clever ways to preserve the
main characters, from the "genetic dynasty" of Emperors that
succeeded the first Emperor Cleon (who only appeared in Asimov's
prequel books) to other ways to bring Hari Seldon, Gaal Dornick,
Salvor Hardin, Demerzel, and others into each new era.

While Goyer has reportedly stepped down from the role of showrunner
after a budget clash likely related to Apple's tightening of the
purse strings last year, he's still writing for the series and will
officially retain that title, even though he's handed off some of
his responsibilities to executive producer Bill Bost.

Foundation had a slower start in season 1 and took a while to catch
on. Some of that was just the usual world-building narrative, but by
the time season 2 hit, it scored a remarkable 100% on Rotten
Tomatoes -áa significant jump from the 72% for season 1. The teaser
suggests that season 3 will ramp things up even more. It's set to
premiere on July 11, with a ten-episode weekly run through
September 12.



<https://www.idropnews.com/news/we-act-or-we-lose-foundation-season-3-arrives-july-11th/247179/>

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