'Foundation' Season 2: Showrunner David S. Goyer on What to Expect

Foundation came to an end on Friday November 19, and the show has already been renewed by AppleTV+ for a second season.

Showrunner David S. Goyer spoke with Newsweek about what to expect from Season 2, including the introduction of the Second Foundation, Gaal and Salvor teaming up, and the Genetic Dynasty in chaos.

Goyer also discussed the surprising twists in the Season 1 finale, and teased how they will play out in Season 2.

The fate of the Genetic Dynasty

The end of Season 1 saw the reveal that the Genetic Dynasty —comprised of Brother Dawn, Brother Day and Brother Dusk— are not identical clones of Cleon the First.

In the finale, Brother Dawn (played by Cassian Bilton) was killed for being different to his fellow clones, only for it to later be confirmed that they are all unique and haven't been genetically identical to their maker for centuries.

Goyer said he told actors Lee Pace (Day), Terrence Mann (Dusk) and Bilton that he wanted them to have subtle differences between each other to foreshadow the Cleon clones' plot twist.

"We know even from studies of twins that twins that are genetically identical don't always end up exactly the same, because it's nature and nurture.

"So the reason why they're a little different is because even though [there's] the perversion of the Genetic Dynasty the idea is to raise them the same in this sort of hermetically sealed environment [but] events outside Trantor are changing, and so they're moulded by those events, so they are a little different."

Explaining how this will impact Season 2, he went on: "Part of the fun of the show moving forward, we'll be seeing how different the various Cleons are.

"It's part of the the jazz that we're playing with Terrance Mann, Cassian Bilton and Lee Pace, because moving forward, even though they're the same actors, some of the the characters are going to be very, very different.

"And so one of the things that's exciting about this, this monkey wrench that's thrown into the Genetic Empire is what does that do when you introduce chaos into that system? What does that do? Because chaos is fun."

How will Gaal Dornick and Salvor Hardin's relationship change things?

Another reveal was that Gaal (Lou Llobell) and Salvor (Leah Harvey) are related as the latter is the genetic daughter of the former.

The pair meet 138 years in the future to where events were left off with the Foundation and the Cleons, and he said he was "excited" to see what the two characters would get up to.

"I can't I really can't reveal too much about that," he said of the pair's future. "But I am excited about the possibility of those two awesome women working together. And they are together now.

"But I will say one of the things that's interesting about this story...we always try to come up with an analogy for what's happening.

"So the story of Gaal and Salvor when we get to the end of season one, I would say the closest analogy would be if someone gave up a child at birth and didn't even know what happened to them, and then one day that adult child knocks on their door and says, 'Hey, mom', or 'Hey, Dad'.

"What's a little different is that, at least biologically, Salvor's a few years older than Gaal, which is one of the fun things that you can only do in science-fiction. I think Salvor's about 26 or 27-years-old, and Gaal is only about 23-years-old, 22-years-old."

Will the Second Foundation be a part of Season 2?

Fans of Issac Asimov's books will know that there is more than one Foundation established by Hari Seldon (Jared Harris), but the Second Foundation is only mentioned in passing in Season 1 of the show.

However, Goyer assured that the Second Foundation will play a part in Season 2, saying he wouldn't have had Hari bring it up if it wasn't going to be important in future.

He explained: "It's definitely something we're going to explore, I didn't bring it up just to not mention it again. Yes.

"And one of the other things about the Second Foundation in the books is that the Second Foundation also largely develops off screen, at least in the original trilogy. It appears almost as a Deus-Ex-Machina.

"And I thought, for viewers of the show, that wouldn't be playing fair, that we had to see the Second Foundation develop."

Goyer went on: "And Hari has revealed the Second Foundation has a purpose that's, to a certain extent, separate and different from the First Foundation.

"And we will learn more about what his original intentions for the Second Foundation were in the second season. Yes."

And what about the First Foundation?

Goyer added that while the Second Foundation would be featured in Season 2, the original settlement would still be relevant to the story, including their alliance with the Anacreons and Thespins.

"It's definitely something I would like to explore," the director explained. "I mean, part of the fun of [the] Foundation is that they seem like they're playing with a weak hand or, sort of, [are] militarily nothing much, you know?

"They're on this tiny frozen world, they don't have a lot of resources, they certainly certainly don't have a lot of defences. And yet, they're crafty and they were able to survive the situation."

Foundation Season 1 is available to watch on AppleTV+ now.