Apple TV+’s “Foundation” is off to an explosive start for its third season as The Mule (Pilou Asbæk) made an impactful debut in the premiere episode airing July 11, “A Song For the End of Everything,” during a shocking engagement on the Kalgan pleasure planet. After the slaughter, we’ve no doubts left as to the type of diabolical destruction he’s capable of in his role as an outlier to the fate of the Imperium and Hari Seldon’s (Jared Harris) psychohistory calculations.
With this latest iteration of Brother Day (Lee Pace) devoting most of his time relaxing with his cloned camel and drug dealer concubine at a posh garden villa on Trantor, the stage is set this season for Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell) to have her climactic confrontation with this telepathic warlord that could destroy not only Empire and the Foundation, but the entirety of humanity itself.
We connected with Lee Pace and Laura Birn during Apple TV+’s “Foundation” press gathering to learn more about their characters’ leap forward 152 years from last season and what surprising facets in their evolution continue to be unveiled as the looming shadow of The Mule begins to make its cruel mark.
Might as well just hang out in the garden, get stoned, play with my ferret, and let the robot do what it wants
“The characters seem to be without limit,” Pace tells Space.com. “I get to play these different people, who are all of them very small-minded in comparison to what Demerzel is. Ego-driven and petty and messy and very human and causing a lot of problems wherever they go. But they’re always so different.
“I never would have imagined I would have been able to play the Emperor of the galaxy in this way,” explains Pace of his role as Cleon XIV.
“But as it fits into the story that we’ve earned now, after making it to this third season, it makes total sense to me. It makes total sense that he’s just like, ‘Ugh, it doesn’t matter what I do here anyway. Might as well just hang out in the garden, get stoned, play with my ferret, and let the robot do what it wants. Just stay away from me.'”
Pace adds that Laura [Birn] has such a huge character that’s been so contained for so many years, that there are limitless possibilities for dramatic paths to travel down. Now with the Prime Radiant at her personal disposal, it’s sure to be fascinating how she chooses to evolve as an immortal artificial being.
It’s not very often that she gets to open her heart and contemplate or reflect on things that have happened to her.
Demerzel (Laura Birn), the last positronic android in the galaxy after the Robot Wars, is loyal to the Empire down to the very elemental essences of her quantum processors. Now in possession of the Prime Radiant after Seldon gifted this technological golden apple to her to aid in the salvation of the galaxy, she’s questioning her own destiny in an existence without anyone to defend.
“I’ve definitely been surprised so many times throughout all the seasons,” Birn reveals.
“I learn about her at the same time when we all learn about her. I will never get bored of her because there are so many layers. She’s kind of this eternal witness for anything and everything that’s ever happened to humankind, so she’s looking to the past and to the future. It’s just endlessly surprising and interesting. I think there are many questions that arise from the Prime Radiant’s information, and she’s used to having answers and being straightforward.
Talking on Demerzel’s motivations for this season, Birn explains that “She has this longing for something she doesn’t even understand, this endless loneliness, and maybe hopes for something new. A possible freedom, or is it something she can wish for? How much responsibility does she have with the information with the fate of humanity still there. Heavy burdens that she carries this season. That responsibility and the inner struggle. It’s not very often that she gets to open her heart and contemplate or reflect on things that have happened to her or that she’s done to other people.”
There’s an interesting dichotomy in the stories of Pace and Birn’s characters for this season, and Demerzel is certainly getting the rough end of the stick for now ” It’s not as light of a season for her as for him [Brother Day], who’s in the garden enjoying sun and a girlfriend and fun times.”
Apple TV+’s “Foundation” Season 3 is now streaming each Friday with new chapters arriving weekly until its finale on Sept. 12.
