Foundationseason 3 invites audiences into the future of the Apple TV+ sci-fi epic–literally. Set 152 years after the events of season 2, the latest outing of the show envisions a galaxy where the Foundation is on the rise and a new clone of Cleon leads the Galactic Empire. As always, the series adapts the groundbreaking novels by beloved sci-fi author Isaac Asimov.
Despite the 152-year time jump, many key characters return including Hari Seldon–with a twist–played by Jared Harris. In thealready well-reviewedFoundationseason 3, Seldon is set to serve as a mentor for Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell) as she gears up for a confrontation with the season’s biggest threat, The Mule. Outside ofFoundation, Harris is an actor known for being a part of truly memorable projects, fromMad MentoChernobyltoSherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.
ScreenRant’s Ash Crossan interviewed Jared Harris about his continued work as Hari Seldon inFoundationseason 3. Harris praised the epic scale of the new season and hyped up The Mule’s impending arrival. Plus, the actor discussed the unique developments for Hari Seldon. Click here for aFoundationrecapon what’s happened so far, and read on for Harris’ thoughts on season 3.
Foundation Season 3 Ventures Into Space Opera Territory
“It’s More Nakedly An Action-Adventure Story”
Foundationseason 3, even from the trailer, looks to have plenty of thrilling action sequences. Jared Harris confirmed that those moments were in service of an overall tonal shift for the new outing.“Season 3 has sort of been released from the shackles of needing to set out the circumstance, get you familiar with the characters, [and] get you familiar with the rules,”he said.[With] this one, all of those elements of the story are sort of hardwired into it, so it can just take off.”
More specifically, the actor said thatFoundationseason 3 is“more nakedly an action-adventure story. It’s more of a space opera, if you like. There’s a sort of fascinating story at the center of the galaxy, which is this strange family that’s imploding on itself. And then, of course, there’s the appearance of this uber-villain.”
Jared Harris Explains The Importance Of Season 3’s Villain
“The Mule Changes Everything”
The biggest threat facingFoundation’s protagonists in season 3 is undoubtedly The Mule, a psychic antagonist played by Pilou Asbæk. The importance of the highly-anticipated villain cannot be understated, Harris seemed to say.“The Mule changes everything,”he shared,“It completely realigns everything that’s possible in the whole story.”To make matters even more dire, Harris said,“The only person who really properly appreciates that is Gaal.”
“To everybody else in the story, it comes as a complete surprise, so everyone else is caught with their pants down.”
“Gaal realizes that there’s this massive threat that’s looming that they need to get ahead of,”Harris said,“and the other problem that they have is they’re a hundred and something years late in creating the second Foundation. So, they need to get that up to speed to be able to start correcting the timeline.”
Season 3’s Two Haris, Explained
“They Are Very Different Versions Of A Character”
Despite Gaal taking more of a leading role inFoundationseason 3, there will be even more of Hari Seldon to go around, with multiple iterations and recreations of the mathematician’s mind at play. That concept is something that has appealed to Harris since the first season, the actor revealed.“It was a pitch that David gave me when I signed on [to] season one–that there were going to be these two versions of the character.”
“You saw they existed in season one,”he continued, though he added that“you didn’t realize that there was the second version until the last episode in season one.”Still, the actor shared that“that was going to be something they were going to develop, and we had an idea of how we wanted to physically differentiate the two characters and what the limits of each version of the character would be, what challenges they’d be faced with, [and] where he was trying to take the character so you could subvert the expectation of where that was going to go.”
“They are very different versions of a character who made a choice, and at the point that they made this choice, they sort of forked out in completely different directions."
