Foundation returns July 11 to kick off its third season, almost exactly two years since season two began. That’s a while for fans to wait, but nobody understands the agony of patience like central character Gaal Dornick, who puts herself into extended cryosleep so she can live to face the Mule, the powerful villain we’ll meet in the episodes ahead.
And it’s not even her first time in the pod. Season three picks up 152 years after season two; Gaal has already been alive for over 100 years on top of that. At a recent Foundation press day, io9 talked to Lou Llobell about what it’s like playing the longest-lived human around.
Fortunately, Llobell says, Gaal’s actually been sleeping for most of it. “I don’t think she is processing anything when she is in cryosleep, [though] it’s obviously a little bit disorienting right when she wakes up.”
Back in season one, Gaal was forced into an escape pod that took her out of commission for a few decades. Later, she added over 100 years to her lifespan when she needed to travel across the galaxy. But the slumber she undertakes while counting down to the Mule is different, Llobell explains.
“This time around she almost makes that decision for herself. It’s not like she’s thrown into a cryopod like she has been before, and I think there’s a difference there, but she obviously hates it, and it’s tedious for her. And as much as she was doing it to get to the point of the Mule being in [existence], she now looks at it as kind of an annoying thing.”
That said, Llobell adds, “Thank god she had [the cryopod], because otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to confront the Mule in the way she does.”
In season three, we see the Second Foundation—set up in secret at the end of season two—undergo a leadership shift. Gaal’s mentor, Hari Seldon, is quite elderly when season three begins and soon passes away. That means Gaal—a gifted psychic on a planet full of them—has to step up and be the leader.
“She really does open herself up more … these people are like her. She doesn’t feel so left out. They have similarities. She’s with her people, and there’s something about that that makes her feel comfortable and lets her open up,” Llobell said.
And Gaal proves to be worthy of the responsibility. “I think she listens to her people. I think she’s inclusive. I think she allows people to be themselves. And she’s got a plan, and everyone respects her, which I think is really important for her to be a good leader, but she’s generous, and that helps.”
Season three also affords Llobell the opportunity to explore what she describes as Gaal’s darker side, which comes out as she works to put her plan in motion.
“You see her in a completely different light,” Llobell teased. “She’s honed all these skills, and she’s not afraid to make sacrifices or take chances in order to get what she needs to get, and it’s pretty cool to see the darker side. I wouldn’t say it’s a dark side, but she’s well-rounded now. She’s got a different side to her that sometimes isn’t very nice, and that’s okay.”
There’s a direct line from that not-so-nice side back to the man who taught her many hard lessons: Hari Seldon. That includes his fondness for not telling Gaal his true intentions a lot of the time. “I think [she] probably understands Hari a lot more now and understands why he made [certain] decisions. She obviously hated it [at the time], but she sees the value in it now.”
Foundation viewers have a special connection to Gaal since she provides its narration. It’s her voice we hear at the start and end of most episodes, an important place marker in a show that shifts across time and space and follows quite a few different storylines.
“I get to see a lot of footage before it’s fully edited together,” Llobell said. “So it’s really cool. But it’s funny because the voiceover for this season was kind of—not an afterthought, but we didn’t know how much of it we were going to do until we got into the booth.”
In Llobell’s mind, “it’s some version of Gaal in the future telling someone … ‘Listen, this is what’s happened, this is history, this is the story of how we came to be where we are now.’”
Foundation season three begins July 11 on Apple TV+.
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