The upcoming Apple TV+ series based on the Isaac Asimov novel series Foundation is building up its cast.
Lou Llobell, Leah Harvey, Laura Birn, Terrence Mann, and Cassian Bilton have all been cast as series regulars. They join previously announced leads Lee Pace and Jared Harris.
The series chronicles the epic saga of The Foundation, a band of exiles who discover that the only way to save the Galactic Empire from destruction is to defy it.
MacDailyNews Take: It will be quite the achievement if Asimov’s sprawling saga can be condensed and adapted for an Apple TV+ series. We hope it’s successful as we’re looking forward to this one very, very much!
I loved Asimov’s Foundation series when I was in my 20s. Then I reread them in my 50s and was disgusted at his portrayal of his female characters. One grows and learns, I guess. The reread revealed (to me!) that his female characters within a sweeping eons-long and gripping story were merely painted on cardboard.
Now I wonder what Apple TV will make of that side of the story. The “work environment” inside Apple was not so derogatory and dismissive, I’d say. I truly loved the diversity I experienced in my decades working there. Race, gender/orientation, religion: accept and support each other and our corporate and cooperative vision expands.
I’m male (and 67 now), but have learned a ton over the decades, I guess.
Not trying to bring anyone down, doncha know?
Regards,
~~Jazzbo
Remember that Asimov wrote the original trilogy as a series of short stories when just a young man in his twenties, during the 1940s.
His own portrayal of female characters changed and matured over the years although character development was never his strong point. His handling of emotional scenes and dialogue always seemd to remain somewhat adolescent, but his ideas and how they would affect society as a whole were virtually unparalleled at that time apart from his fellow grand masters eg. Heinlein, Clarke, Anderson to name a few
No need to fret, the TV version is Woke Foundation, with Gaal Dornick, Salvor Hardin and Eto Demerzil being played by women. As usual, Hollywood has overcorrected in an attempt to embrace diversity.
It’s still in production for future release. We can’t wait to see what they do with it!
I just hope it’s not another I, Robot-style adaptation. Like I, Robot, the first Foundation book was actually a series of short stories connected by a common background. I’m not hopeful.
The notion of a “series regular” for Foundation overall is interesting depending on which part of the series they’re shooting.
The Foundation series is quite complex and it is going to be a challenge to put this in TV format. It will be interesting how this works out but I do not have high hopes.
Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and John W. Campbell, Jr., form a terrifically exciting quadrumvirate in the book about the Golden Age of Science Fiction by author Alec Nevala-Lee. Highly recommended.
Other authors that come to mind: Arthur C. Clarke, Ursula Le Guin, Philip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury, Frank Herbert, Larry Niven, Harlan Ellison, David Brin, Robert Silverberg, Theodore Sturgeon, Andre Norton…the list goes on and on. Someday I may read all of their books again.