Foundation season 2 — cast, new characters, plot, first look, and all about the next series of the famous sci-fi saga (2023)

Foundation season 2 is coming to Apple TV+ which is great news for all fans entranced and intrigued by Foundation season 1 which concluded in such spectacular fashion and has left us thirsting for much more.

Based on Isaac Asimov’s award-winning stories, the cast for season 2 is led again by Jared Harris and Lee Pace — see the season 2 first look picture above — alongside rising stars Lou Llobell and Leah Harvey. There are also lots of new cast members joining the franchise to play a new set of season 2 characters (see our list below). The Apple Original drama also stars Laura Birn, Terrence Mann and Cassian Bilton.

We were left wanting to know what happens on the planets of Terminus and Trantor next as Dr Hari Seldon's prediction of the fall of the Galactic Empire seems to be on the right track so far! His psychohistory mathematics might be baffling to us mere mortals but his predicted path for humanity has been spookily accurate. But, after the 'First Crisis' that hit Foundation season 1 what could happen in Foundation season 2 and what new characters and plot twists might be on their way?

Showrunner David S. Goyer says: “Since my childhood, I’ve dreamed of how Hari Seldon and Eto Demerzel would look and sound — what Terminus and Trantor would feel like. Now, with Foundation season 2, our audience will get to visit more of Asimov’s indelible characters and worlds, including Hober Mallow, General Bel Riose and all the Outer Suns. I'm thrilled that a whole new generation of fans are reading Asimov’s brilliant masterwork. We’re playing the long game withFoundationand I’m grateful to my partners at Apple and Skydance for entrusting me with this epic. Buckle up. We’re about to fold some serious space.”

So here's all we know so far about Foundation season 2 on Apple TV Plus...

Foundation season 2 release date

Foundation season 2 is filming at the moment so we don't expect Apple to announce a launch date any time soon, although we'd expect late 2022 or 2023 to be the most likely. Keep an eye on this guide for any updates.

Foundation season 2 — new characters and cast

The new cast for Foundation season 2 has been announced. The series showrunner, David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight,Man of Steel)has told us the two pivotal characters characters of Hober Mallow and General Bel Riose are arriving, played by Dimitri Leonidas and Ben Daniels.

So here's our quick guide to the 10 new characters and new cast below, starting with the main two additions...

Dimitri Leonidasis Hober Mallow,a master trader with a sarcastic personality and questionable morals, who is summoned against his will to serve a higher, selfless cause. In the books, Hober Mallow was a master trader who helped expand the Foundation beyond Terminus and clashed with the dictates of Terminus leader Salvor Hardin.

Ben Danielsplays Bel Roise,the last great general of the Superliminal Fleet and would-be conqueror of the Foundation. Bel is noble to a fault, but his fealty to the Galactic Empire is waning. In Asimov's books, General Bel Roise is a general of the Galactic Empire, so in Foundation season 2 we can probably assume the arrival of this warrior means trouble between the Empire and Terminus and some major space battles.

The new cast in Foundation season 2 continued...

Isabella Laughlandplays Brother Constant, a cheerfully confident cleric whose job is to evangelize the Church of the Galactic Spirit across the Outer Reach. Constant is a true believer, whose courage and passion make her hard not to love.

Kulvinder Ghiris Poly Verisof, High Claric of the Church of the Galactic Spirit. Whip-smart and sardonic, he’s also a terrible drunk. Intelligent enough to see the path he’s on, but he's far too cynical to change.

Ella-Rae Smithplays Queen Sarethof Cloud Dominion. Used to being underestimated, Sareth employs this to her advantage, charming her way into the Imperial Palace with biting wit, all while on a secret quest for revenge.

Sandra Yi Sencindiveris Enjoiner Rue, the beautiful, politically savvy consigliere to Queen Sareth. A former courtesan to Cleon The 16th, Rue transformed her status to become a royal counselor.

Holt McCallanyis Warden Jaegger Fount,the current Warden of Terminus and guardian of its citizens against external threats.

Mikael Persbrandtis The Warlord of Kalgan,a monster of a man, full of muscles and possessing powerful psychic abilities, and riven by hate in his quest to take over the galaxy. Not someone you'd want to wrestle with!

Rachel Houseplays the mysterious leader of the Mentallics called Tellem Bond.

Nimrat Kauris a Bollywood actress who plays Yanna Seldon, so we're presuming with that surname she's a relative of Hari.

Foundation season 2 — returning characters and cast

As well as the return of Leah Harvey as Salvor, Jared Harris to be back as Dr. Hari Seldon as well as Lou Llobell as Gaal Dornick — she is after all our narrator and was crucial to the last moments of Foundation season 1 along with Salvor Hardin.The pair met and with the time-jump going on it looks like Gaal is Salvoir's mother. Gaal after all left frozen eggs in season 1 episode 2.

Leah Harvey recently explained to Newsweek: "I did know of the link between Gaal and Salvor. Before I actually got the part I was told that was the case.

"I wouldn't say it influenced my performance but I definitely did try to put in some slight similarities in the way they perhaps express things, tiny things. Sometimes they say things that echo each other, they have the same worries and things like that so that was easy to do, but every now and then I would try to copy Lou Llobell's crying face. Lou has a very particular crying face and Gaal has a particularly bad first season, she cries a lot so I was able to copy that a bit and put that in. It wasn't too hard to link the two characters but we also wanted to keep it as subtle as they could, but whether the audience knew when they were watching it's up to them really if they want to notice or not.

"With a show like this, because it's such a big, big universe if you single out one character that's hardly ever going to happen because there's so much going on."

As the clone leaders never change, Lee Pace should be back too as the middle Cleon clone Brother Day. Lee recently told Newsweek about his character at the end of season 1 and looks forward to season 2.

"One of the interesting, delicate shifts that happened inside the character is that he becomes aware of his sentience, of his sovereignty," he said.

"He has lived his life as this fantasy that he is another man, and I think at the moment during The Spiral at the end he realizes he's all alone and he's just human, he is not this idea of Empire.

"I think hearing that the clones haven't been genetically the same man anyway is just this almost macabre [irony]."

Foundation series 2 — filming and locations

According to The Prague Reporter, the second season began filming in Prague inApril 2022. As per the first series other filming locations will include Tenerife in the Canary Islands, the deserts of Malta, the snow fields of Iceland, studios in Ireland, and even Berlin.

In the summer of 2022, Leah Harvey revealed through an Instagram post (see below) that she's been filming Foundation season 2 on the island of Fuerteventura, which is mostly volcanic so the perfect spot to become a hostile alien planet.

Foundation season 2 plot

To be frank, the plot of Foundation season 2 is anybody's guess at this early stage. As we've already seen in season 1, this sci-fi epic is only loosely based on the Foundation (opens in new tab)series of novels (opens in new tab)which were published from the 1950s onwards by prolific American author Isaac Asimov (opens in new tab). So the books don't really give viewers much to go on. Even main characters, such as Salvor Hardin and Gaal Dornick, were male in Asimov's original books but have been updated to become female in this TV saga —to reflect our more modern thinking.

There are new characters (see above) and plot twists galore in the upcoming season and the story has a whole galaxy in which to play out. To predict Foundation season 2 — and we're not using Dr Hari Seldon's mathematical psychohistory here to set this in stone — it would probably be a safe bet to conclude that events will follow on from what happened at the end of Foundation season 1 (see our episode guide below). Towards the end of the series, it saw Dr Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) appearing to the Foundation community on Terminus in his digitized/hologram form after the major 'first crisis' to advise on the next stages. We believe another crisis is likely to befall Terminus during Foundation season 2 so we'll expect to see digital Hari and Jared Harris playing a prominent part in the story again.

Those dictatorial Cleon clone kings of Trantor and rulers of the Galactic Empire — Brothers Dawn, Day and Dusk — had sorted their troubles with the defective Brother Dawn by episode 10 of Season 1, but they'd definitely been shaken, and angered, by the complex plot against them, which was eventually foiled. The Foundation, however, has now led the Empire to believe their project was destroyed by a huge solar flare in the outer galaxy via a clever move using the Invictus spaceship. This cunning plan was of course suggested by super-genius Hari Seldon. So will the Clone kings now leave that area of the universe alone so the humans there can just get on with developing into the Foundation of Hari's dreams in season 2? Somehow we doubt it will be quite that simple...

The final scenes of Foundation season 1 happen 138 years later than most of the previous series (beware there are big spoilers here!), which is the time it's taken Hari's math prodigy Gaal Dornick to travel in a cryo-pod to arrive at her home planet of Synnax. She finds the world in utter ruins, except for an underwater flashing beacon. She then swims down to find another cryo-pod with Salvor Hardin inside. Salvor had discovered, in the final episode, that she was the daughter of Gaal and Rayh Foss (Alfred Enoch), from the embryo they created together which was planted inside surrogate mum Mari (Sasha Behar). Salvor then gives Gaal the cube she used to open Hari's Vault on Terminus.

So what did all that mean? We really do expect to see more of the Gaal and Salvor's story play out in Foundation season 2, to discover their mysterious connection and also the plans Hari Seldon has for the mother and daughter in the future of the Foundation on Terminus and beyond.

Is there a trailer for Foundation season 2?

There's not even the slightest teaser trailer for Foundation season 2 as it's far too early. We'll of course post the trailer when it arrives.

What happened in Foundation season 1 - episode guide?

Before you start on Foundation season 2, If you want a more detailed explanation of what happened in Foundation season 1, take a look through our full episode guide (with spoilers) which is below...

Foundation season 1 episode 1 and 2 review

Foundation season 1 episode 3: The Mathematician's Ghost

Foundation season 1 episode 4: Barbarians at the Gates

Foundation season 1 episode 5 review: Upon Awakening

Foundation season 1 episode 6 review: Death and the Maiden

Foundation season 1 episode 7 Review: Mysteries and Martyrs

Foundation season 1 episode 8 Review: The Missing Piece

Foundation season 1 episode 9 Review: The First Crisis

Foundation season 1 episode 10 Review: The Leap

More guides for top shows on Apple TV Plus below..

• Foundation season 1 on Apple TV Plus — all you need to know about the Isaac Asimov adaptation
• Black Bird
• Slow Horses
• Masters Of The Air
• First thoughts on Apple TV Plus' Mythic Quest Season 2
• Schmigadoon!
• The Mosquito Coast
• Invasion