How Isaac Asimov's Daughter Feels About The Foundation Apple TV Series

It's not always a given that writers will approve of TV or film adaptations of their books. Sometimes, authors hate their adaptations. Legendary sci-fi author, Isaac Asimov, died decades before Apple TV+ turned his acclaimed "Foundation" novels into a show. While we might never know what he would've thought, his daughter approves — and thinks he would have, too.

It makes sense that Robyn Asimov, the late writer's daughter, would like the "Foundation" TV series, as she's one of the show's executive producers. In an interview with Collider published after Season 2, Asimov explained that there is actually an element of the series that, she thinks, improves on her father's famously complex, millennia-spanning books. "I love the character development. That was not my father's strong suit, and not necessarily his interest per se," Asimov said. "It was all about the storytelling, and he did that so well that it was okay that the characters were a bit flat.

"If my father had lived to see this, I think he would have been very, very impressed," she continued. "My father would have loved to have seen the characters come to life."

Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" began as a series of short stories in 1942, before evolving into a sweeping, multi-book, sci-fi epic that concluded in 1993 — a half-century later. The plot, which follows the downfall of a galactic empire and a mathematician's plan to orchestrate events so the resulting dark age only lasts 1,000 years instead of much longer, is fascinating and heady. It's also not exactly conducive to recurring TV characters — especially considering since featured many time skips and had major events happen entirely off-page.

David S. Goyer, the showrunner behind the adaptation, had a one-sentence pitch for the show that sold Apple TV+ executives on the series. One of Goyer's biggest adaptational choices, on top of making the "Foundation" cast more diverse, was to find ways to have the same characters reappear throughout the storyline. "I figured out a way to have some of the characters extend their lifespans. About six characters will continue from season to season, from century to century," he told The Hollywood Reporter.

In the books, there are a series of emperors who rule the galaxy who have normal lifespans. In the show, the Empire is ruled by a series of clones, meaning "Foundation" star, Lee Pace, could repeatedly show up as an Emperor Cleon.