The Foundation Season 3 is over (we’re still reeling), and we’re beyond thrilled that a fourth season is on the way. While Apple TV+’s Asimov adaptation has a lot going for it—complex characters, dynamic worldbuilding, a plot that celebrates the wonders of mathematics—you can’t count out the Lee Pace factor either.
The charismatic, cultured actor has been a staple throughout all three seasons. However, Foundation takes place over hundreds of years, with the galaxy it’s set in ruled by clones who are replaced over time. Pace plays a clone of Cleon named Brother Day, and the iterations of him we’ve met over the course of three seasons are very diverse.
In the first season, Cleon XIII was made to go on a gruesome religious pilgrimage to prove he had a soul, and so was cut off from religious opponents as a potential power grabber. In the second season, Cleon XVII toyed with the idea of ending the genetic dynasty, then escalated the conflict with the Foundation and was overthrown by his own ego. In the third season, Cleon XXIV shirks his royal duties, preferring to hang out with his mistress and rise to the top – at least until he discovers a nobler purpose.
That’s a pretty big summary of the various bro days the Foundation has implemented over the years. But it’s important to note that they all look like Lee Pace — and they’re forever appearing in various stages of undress.
In a new interview with GQ, Pace discussed the fitness routine he followed to be ready to jump out of his Cleon robes at any moment.
“I play a different character every season, and it’s really important to me to create a physicality for the characters, to help tell that story, even though the idea is that they’re the same person who’s been cloned over and over again,” he said. “I think it’s important for me and my sanity to know that none of us can actually be the same, that clones are impossible, that we’re individuals and unique from each other. So it’s important to me to create very different bodies for these characters every season.”
Temps has worked with the same trainer throughout The Basics, he said, to help him embody every version of Cleon he’s played. “In the first season, he was this powerful emperor of the galaxy, wanting to execute people. And in the second season, I think I just went wild with this idea of his ego, that he actually believes he’s the most important person in the galaxy.”
Season three, Pace says, was less about spending long hours in the gym. “It was important to me this season to think of the character as pretty relaxed — and you can still exercise in a relaxed way. I think that’s something I really appreciate because I don’t like to feel too pressured. We also wanted to push a lot of weight with the character. We felt like he had a size that felt right.”
If you haven’t watched the season three finale, “The Darkness,” yet and you’re concerned about spoilers, stop here!
In season three, Brother Day—who chose to remove his royal self-healing nanites—is murdered by his older brother Darkness, who then destroys all the tanks containing the spare Cleon clones.
Does this mean that the pace won’t return in Foundation season four? Demerzel, the robot that kept moving on the Kleon conveyor belt, has himself been murdered by the darkness. And who knows how much of the equipment needed to clone humans is still in operation?
However, the youngest Cleon — Brother Dawn — is still alive and almost the right age to become Brother Day. (In the Groundbreaking suspense drama, although Brother Dawn is played by Cassian Bilton, Brother Day always looks like Lee Pace.)
The finale also made sure to show us that the first Cleon Corps, long since gone, is still hanging around. He’s the ruler who implemented a genetic dynasty generations ago, using his DNA as a blueprint.
But the show’s trajectory toward the long-promised “fall of the empire” suggests we’ve reached the end of the clone era, even if it were somehow possible to create more Clones. Much will depend on where season four picks up with the story, though given how we left things, it seems likely there won’t be another 150-year gap.
All of this is to say that we love Lee Pace and we hope The Foundation finds a sci-fi way to keep him on the show. You can watch all three seasons of The Foundation on Apple TV+ now.
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