Foundation Season 3 Art Blast

The first thing I asked David Goyer was: “When do I get to design a motorcycle?”
And without missing a beat, he responds, “I’m writing a motorcycle chase on a desert planet.” That pretty much set the tone—I knew season 3 of Foundation was going to be wild.

For me personally, this show’s been a ride. Foundation taught me to think about design in layers.

Every decision has to work emotionally, practically, and narratively. The artwork in this post gives a glimpse into how we imagined the new worlds, cultures, and increased the scale of Foundation Season 3. We hope you enjoy!

Rory Cheyne, Production Designer

New Season, New Worlds

From the start, we knew Season 3 would be a new challenge. Foundation was no longer just a scrappy group of settlers; it was stepping into full-blown power and the stakes are rising. The Mule was out there, flipping entire planets. 

The Foundation was winning and losing at the same time. It all had to feel massive, but also fragile and on the verge of collapse.

To build new worlds, we went everywhere for inspiration—Barcelona, Valencia, Warsaw, Kraków—looking for that strange blend of the ancient and the futuristic.

Clarion
Empire’s O’Neill cylinder served as the big political meeting place. I wanted something awe-inspiring. I scouted Valencia’s Arts & Sciences buildings, but then I found the Temple of Divine Providence in Warsaw. It had an incredible presence. 

Haven
Haven is a planet that doesn’t rotate, so one side is always burning and the other side is frozen. People live in the twilight zone in between, inside a walled city. Every day, moons cast shadows over the hot zone, and people time their travel to move safely through the heat.

Here is where I designed these long hover bikes—kind of like speeders, but with a rotating cockpit around a sphere engine.

Cold-side costumes were like high-tech bomb suits with lights built in.

The architecture of this beautiful museum in Warsaw had that perfect mix of natural flow and futuristic edge.

Kalgan
Kalgan is the polar opposite of Rossem (more to come on this world, later). It’s like a galactic resort planet—Ibiza meets Norway. We wanted to flex with VFX here—cliffs, villas, waterfalls. We shot the club interior in Warsaw, exterior in Lublin, and villas in Barcelona.

We also had new characters, like Toran and Bayta, who lived this luxe, high-end life. Their ship wasn’t just a standard ship, but also had a vibe. David pitched it as a “space Winnebago,” and I took that straight into retro-futurism—something like a 1960s cocktail lounge, but run by an AI.  First time for me to cover a set in shag carpet.

Costumes involved a combination of sheer & shiny fabrics and mesh. It was all about mixing cultures. Hair and makeup had a lot of creative freedom here.

Mycogen (Trantor’s lower levels)
Trantor was a big one. We were going deeper down within the planet. David wanted Day to leave the palace and walk through the underbelly. That meant creating something new that still felt like it belonged.

We went deep underground here, literally. It’s a working-class zone where mushrooms are farmed for the elite. I was inspired by the Haenyeo women of Korea—strong, self-sufficient. For the setting, I used a church in Kraków and built a market into it. Then you descend into the lower levels and feel a shift in tone, light—everything.

We also needed this quiet, almost forgotten garden for Day. I found a former royal garden in Barcelona. It still felt imperial, but lost in time, which is just what we needed.

Rossem
This was a rural, farming world, but it needed to feel affected by Foundation tech. The locals keep moving because Foundation harvesters ruin the soil. I ended up using a giant hops field in CZ. The buildings were inspired by portable Antarctic shelters—modular, pack-up-and-move style. The look was stripped back, functional. Costumes consisted of issued uniforms with nothing extravagant.

And that’s the galaxy, at least for now.

We hope this glimpse into the art and production design of Foundation Season 3 has sparked your imagination. The story—and its world—continue to evolve, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. I invite you to keep exploring as the saga unfolds.