Apple is turning one of the most iconic sci-fi franchises into a TV show

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...with the help of Altered Carbon’s production team

There’s very little doubt that Isaac Asimov’s seminal Foundation series launched dozens - if not hundreds - of sci-fi plots over the years: Written in the golden era of sci-fi in the 1920s through the 1950s, Foundation built the archetypal sci-fi story you’ve come to love in franchises like Star Wars, Star Trek and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, as well as games like Horizon Zero Dawn and Call of Duty: Black Ops. 

Tackling Asimov’s sprawling 15-book epic and encapsulating it into a modern TV show is a terribly difficult task, and yet, a tag-team duo of writers, Apple and the production studio behind Altered Carbon are going to try and do just that. 

The news of the partnership comes by way of Deadline and Variety, both of whom claim that the series will be helmed by screenwriters and producers David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman. (Previously, Goyer worked on The Dark Knight trilogy, Man of Steel and Blade, and was the co-writer for Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Black Ops II, while Friedman wrote the 2005 screen adaptation of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds.)

The series will be produced by Skydance Media, the production studio who recently adapted Richard K. Morgan’s 2002 novel, Altered Carbon, into a hit TV show on Netflix.

 A new golden era of sci-fi television 

While the series would be Apple’s first big play into the sci-fi TV show space - it’s far from the first such adaptations made in the last two decades. 

Before this, we got Altered Carbon, The Man in the High Castle, George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Soon, Amazon will start filming its billion-dollar The Lord of the Rings spin-off series while FX, FOX and others are hard at work spinning various Marvel and DC comics from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s into TV shows.

It’s hard to deny that we’ve entered a new age for sci-fi television - one that might find a new bright star when Apple releases its Foundation adaptation on its still-unconfirmed streaming service sometime in the next few years. 

Nick Pino
Nick Pino

Nick Pino is Managing Editor, TV and AV for TechRadar's sister site, Tom's Guide. Previously, he was the Senior Editor of Home Entertainment at TechRadar, covering TVs, headphones, speakers, video games, VR and streaming devices. He's also written for GamesRadar+, Official Xbox Magazine, PC Gamer and other outlets over the last decade, and he has a degree in computer science he's not using if anyone wants it.