Showrunner David Goyer even mentioned that possibility in the original teaser. “People have been trying to make Foundation for over 50 years,” he says. “Foundation was an enormous influence for Star Wars. It was the greatest science fiction work of all time. The story is sprawling; the scope is sprawling. It unfolds over the course of a thousand years.” The stories aren’t the same, of course, but they both involve a galactic empire that’s starting to crumble without even realizing its impending demise. Similar to the Jedi of Star Wars, the followers of Hari Seldon eventually treat the predictive powers of his pioneering work in the science of psychohistory as a religion. And, like Star Wars, the Foundation novels begin in the middle, with Asimov having written sequels and prequels decades after the original work. Look closely at the Foundation trailer, and you’ll see imagery such as the stormtrooper-like armor of those in power, the robes and shouldered weaponry of the rebels, and small ships gliding over frozen landscapes that might as well be Hoth, the frigid home of the Rebel Alliance’s Echo Base from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. The space battles even have the massive scale we’ve come to expect. Build your own LEGO model of Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing Fighter here!
