Why ‘Foundation’ Veered Away From the Anthology Format

For a series like Apple TV+’s Foundation, choosing the structure through which you’ll tell the ambitious story is key. The sci-fi series has the tough task of adapting a story that spans over 1,000 years, which means that characters will invariably come and go. This could suggest that the show would benefit from the anthology format used in titles like American Horror Story and Fargo, but in an interview to Collider’s Therese Lacson, series creator David S. Goyer talked about sticking to the (sort of) traditional series format.

During the interview, Goyer said that Foundation’s best bet ended up being a sort of middle ground between traditional storytelling and the anthology format. We do have characters that power through seasons like Demerzel (Laura Birn) and Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobel), but the creator and producer makes it clear that they’re having fun with playing with structures — and the plan is to stick to it for the foreseeable future:

“I like to think of it as a hybrid of a serialized show, and an anthology because Season 1 has a beginning, a middle and an end, and many characters that don’t continue on from Season 1 to Season 2. And Season 2, as you know now, has a beginning, middle and end, and many of those character stories are complete, and the plan is to do something similar for Season 3 and Season 4. It’s just that, there aren’t a lot of shows like this, but it would be if you took something like ‘Fargo’ and had two characters that continued from season to season. But I don’t think I would have wanted, even in a perfect world, to have done a straight anthology. And I like that it’s kind of an unusual format.”

‘Foundation’s Structure Found a Comfortable In-Between

By sticking to the multi-season arcs, Foundation can, of course, do callbacks to previous storylines and foreshadow the appearance of characters like The Mule, which is the sort of thing that anthologies don’t tend to do. Ultimately, the Apple TV+ series is also treading uncharted territory – only in the era of streaming wars and peak TV we are able to see stories this ambitious with generous budgets told through multiple seasons, and the incredibly extensive timeline of Foundation is something rare even for today’s standards.

Foundation stars Jared Harris (Chernobyl), Lee Pace (Bodies Bodies Bodies), Leah Harvey (Les Misérables), Cassian Bilton (Shoal), Terrence Mann (Sense8) and Nimrat Kaur (Homeland). Even though Goyer references Seasons 3 and 4 of the series, Apple TV+ is yet to officially announce the series’ return for new episodes.

You can stream all episodes of Foundation on Apple TV+.