Foundation season three cast and crew "told to return home" as production woes derail Apple TV Plus sci-fi smash hit

Foundation — Official Season 2 Sneak Peek | Apple TV+
(Image credit: Apple)

Foundation is big. It is massive in scope, spanning universes traversed in mighty space battleships, and the enormous halls in which the main characters dwell tower over any building you might find on our Earth. That means it’s an expensive show for Apple TV Plus and SkyDance to make — now it looks like some of those costs are starting to affect the production of the third season.

According to Deadline, the cast and crew had already started to arrive in Poland before they were “told to return home” while the problems with production are ironed out. Filming was due to start in February, but there’s now no date in sight for the sci-fi epic to get rolling again.

Foundation woes

Foundation isn’t the most critically acclaimed show, but it’s certainly one of the most impressive to look at and a slam dunk pick for our roundup of the best Apple TV Plus shows. The set design is masterful, the costumes intricate, and the music suitably soaring and massive. 

This isn’t the first time that there have been production issues with the show, the most recent being 2023’s writers strike. Despite these delays, Deadline tells us that “about a third of Foundation's third season is in the can”.

Foundation harkens back to some of the most epic Sci-Fi of old, and it's no surprise why. Based on the books of the same name by seminal science fiction author Isaac Asimov, the series covers thousands of years of interstellar ‘history’. It tells the story of ‘the Foundation’ — an institute founded by season one main character Hari Seldon, which contains and studies all the best bits of the slowly dissolving galactic empire (no, not that one, a different and completely distinct one. Promise).

For those who love the show (as I do) this news is extremely sad. I’ve been waiting for season three for what feels like thousands of years at this point, so any extra time feels like a punch in the gut. Hopefully, the budget issues will all get ironed out soon, and we’ll be back in the midst of the twists and turns of the Galactic Empire and Foundation.

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Tammy Rogers
Senior Staff Writer

As iMore's Senior Staff writer, Tammy uses her background in audio and Masters in screenwriting to pen engaging product reviews and informative buying guides. The resident audiophile (or audio weirdo), she's got an eye for detail and a love of top-quality sound. Apple is her bread and butter, with attention on HomeKit and Apple iPhone and Mac hardware. You won't find her far away from a keyboard even outside of working at iMore – in her spare time, she spends her free time writing feature-length and TV screenplays. Also known to enjoy driving digital cars around virtual circuits, to varying degrees of success. Just don't ask her about AirPods Max - you probably won't like her answer.