'Foundation' Season 2 clip reveals a brutal look at the new season (video)

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Empire is attacked in this savage peek at the new season's explosive July 14 premiere.

Emmy-nominated actor Lee Pace always delivers compelling performances, whether he's trying to dominate the galaxy as Ronan the Accuser in "Guardians of the Galaxy" or swaying investors as charismatic computer impresario Joe MacMillan in AMC's "Halt and Catch Fire."

In his standout role as the merciless Galactic Emperor in Apple TV+'s "Foundation," Pace's Brother Day character is a treacherous tyrant trying to hold together an empire of thousands of worlds as a resistance movement hatched by psychohistorian and mathematician Hari Seldon threatens his genetic clones' centuries-old reign.

Pace can now be seen sans clothes and putting up one heck of a fight after an intimate session of carnal knowledge with his android companion and confidante Demerzel (Laura Birn) in a new clip from "Foundation's" Season 2 premiere, titled "The Fight."

Related: 'Foundation' Season 2 trailer teases 'despair, death and destruction' for Apple TV+'s epic space drama

Lee Pace as Brother Day in "Foundation." (Image credit: Apple TV+)

Here's the season's official synopsis:

"More than a century after the Season 1 finale, tension mounts throughout the galaxy in 'Foundation' Season 2. As the Cleons unravel, a vengeful queen plots to destroy Empire from within. Hari, Gaal and Salvor discover a colony of Mentalics with psionic abilities that threaten to alter psychohistory itself. The Foundation has entered its religious phase, promulgating the Church of Seldon throughout the Outer Reach and inciting the Second Crisis: War with Empire. 

"The monumental adaptation of 'Foundation' chronicles the stories of four crucial individuals transcending space and time as they overcome deadly crises, shifting loyalties and complicated relationships that will ultimately determine the fate of humanity."

According to Pace during a chat with Space.com, the naked battle featured in the new clip was heavily rehearsed with the series' stunt coordinators to ensure authenticity and safety. The brawny, Oklahoma-born actor did the entire attack scene without the benefit of any stunt doubles, and the savagery of the clash comes across as a testament to the royal character's inner turmoil and complexity.

Lee Pace portrays the Galactic Emperor in "Foundation." (Image credit: Apple TV+)
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Other actors returning for "Foundation" Season 2 are Jared Harris, Cassian Bilton and Terrence Mann, alongside newbies Isabella Laughland (Brother Constant), Kulvinder Ghir (Poly Verisof), Ella-Rae Smith (Queen Sareth of Cloud Dominion), Holt McCallany (Warden Jaegger Fount), Rachel House (Tellem Bond), Nimrat Kaur (Yanna Seldon), Ben Daniels (Bel Riose), and Dimitri Leonidas (Hober Mallow).

"Foundation" was adapted from Isaac Asimov's classic sci-fi novels by executive producer and showrunner David S. Goyer ("Man of Steel," "DaVinci's Demons") for Apple and Skydance Television, in partnership with Alex Graves, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Bill Bost, Robin Asimov and Marcy Ross acting as co-executive producers.

"Foundation" Season 2 streams exclusively on Apple TV+ beginning July 14, 2023.

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Jeff Spry
Jeff Spry
Contributing Writer

Jeff Spry is an award-winning screenwriter and veteran freelance journalist covering TV, movies, video games, books, and comics. His work has appeared at SYFY Wire, Inverse, Collider, Bleeding Cool and elsewhere. Jeff lives in beautiful Bend, Oregon amid the ponderosa pines, classic muscle cars, a crypt of collector horror comics, and two loyal English Setters.

3 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Erny_Module
    Would be more accurate to say "not based on the classic Isaac Asimov novel, 'Foundation,' ", as it has absolutely nothing, apart from a few character names, in common with it. I watched the first Season... watched it disappear down the plughole of trite mediocrity that you'd expect from Goyer et al, famed for... Superhero movies.
    "Look! It's a robot! A ROBOT! See? There's machinery under the skin! It's a ROBOT!"
    Next episode:
    "Look! It's a robot! A ROBOT! See? There's machinery under the skin! It's a ROBOT!"
    And so on.
    It's fundamentally flawed as the dolts couldn't get the rights to Daneel Olivaw - or didn't figure out that that was pretty central to the whole thing. Either way, they've had to write their own story, but they're not very good at it.
    Reply
  • Alter Weiser
    I agree. I read the books when I was a young teen. This isn't the foundation series. The gender swaps ruined the plots and the mildly interesting storyline about the emperor isn't part of the Foundation. Apple is guilty of murdering the stories.
    Reply
  • Erny_Module
    Alter Weiser said:
    I agree. I read the books when I was a young teen. This isn't the foundation series. The gender swaps ruined the plots and the mildly interesting storyline about the emperor isn't part of the Foundation. Apple is guilty of murdering the stories.
    It's not Apple that's at fault - they merely provided the money for Goyer et al to cash in on the Asimov/Foundation name. Goyer obviously thinks he's a better writer and has better stories than Asimov. He is incorrect - at best he's a mediocre hack that should have stuck with infantile, 1 dimensional superhero nonsense.
    Gender swapping is now the law in 'Hollywood' so I'm afraid we're stuck with it, but just that one change of Demerzel/Olivaw is so ridiculous and pointless considering the origins.... but then, they would have had to read books without pictures to understand that.
    The genetic dynasty thing is utterly ludicrous considering how far the science of genetics would have advanced by then, so if that's the best they could come up with... honestly, the whole thing is dire and dismal, and such a waste of time, money, talent and the legacy of Asimov.
    Reply