As fans of the show well know, Brother Day has no problem showing off his clone-honed physique.<\/b>
\nFoundation season three has ended (we\u2019re still reeling) and we are more than thrilled that a fourth season is on the way. Though Apple TV+\u2019s Asimov adaptation has a lot of things to recommend about it\u2014complex characters, dynamic worldbuilding, a plot that celebrates the wonders of math\u2014you also can\u2019t count out the Lee Pace factor.
The charismatic, cult-beloved actor has been a pivotal part of all three seasons. Though Foundation takes place across hundreds of years, the galaxy it\u2019s set in is ruled by clones who are replaced over time. Pace plays the Cleon clone named Brother Day, and the iterations of him we\u2019ve met across three seasons have been widely varied.
In season one, Cleon XIII underwent a grueling religious pilgrimage to prove he had a soul\u2014and therefore cut off a would-be power grab from religious opponents. In season two, Cleon XVII toyed with the idea of ending the genetic dynasty, then escalated the conflict with Foundation and was undone by his own ego. Season three\u2019s Cleon XXIV shirks his royal duties, preferring to hang with his lady friend and get high\u2014at least until he discovers a more noble purpose.
That\u2019s a too-brief summary of the various Brother Days Foundation has introduced over the years. But it\u2019s important to note they all look like Lee Pace\u2014and they\u2019re forever popping up in various stages of undress.
In a new interview with GQ, Pace discussed the fitness routine he followed to be ready to leap out of Cleon\u2019s robes at any moment.
\u201cEvery season I play a different character, and it\u2019s very important to me to create physicality for the characters, to help tell that story, even though the idea is that they\u2019re the same man cloned again and again,\u201d he said. \u201cI guess it\u2019s important for me and my own sanity to know that none of us can actually be the same, that clones are impossible, that we are intrinsically individuals and unique from each other. So it\u2019s important to me to make a very different body for these characters every season.\u201d
Pace has worked with the same trainer for the duration of Foundation, he said, to help him embody each version of Cleon that he\u2019s played. \u201cIn the first season, he was the strong emperor of the galaxy, eager to execute people. And in the second season, I guess I just went wild with this idea of his ego, that he actually believed he was the most important person in the galaxy.\u201d
Season three, Pace said, was less about spending long hours in the gym. \u201cIt was important for me this season to think about the character as pretty relaxed\u2014and you can still exercise in a relaxed way. I think that\u2019s something that I very much appreciate because I don\u2019t like feeling overly pressured. We also wanted to push a lot of weight with the character. We felt like there was a size to him that felt right.\u201d
If you haven\u2019t yet watched the season three finale, \u201cThe Darkness,\u201d and you care about Foundation spoilers, stop here!
In the season three finale, Brother Day\u2014who chose to have his royal self-healing nanites removed\u2014is murdered by his older brother, Darkness, who then smashes all the tanks containing the backup Cleon clones.
Does that mean Pace won\u2019t be back for Foundation season four? Demerzel, the robot who kept the Cleon conveyor belt moving, has herself been murdered by Darkness. And who knows how much of the equipment needed to clone human beings remains operational?
However, the youngest Cleon\u2014Brother Dawn\u2014is still alive and nearly of the right age to become Brother Day. (In Foundation\u2019s suspension-of-disbelief dramatics, though Brother Dawn is played by Cassian Bilton, Brother Day always looks like Lee Pace.)
Also, the finale made sure to show us that the long-preserved body of Cleon the First is still hanging around. He\u2019s the ruler who implemented the genetic dynasty generations ago, using his own DNA as a blueprint.
But the show\u2019s trajectory toward the long-promised \u201cfall of Empire\u201d suggests that we\u2019ve reached the end of the clone era, even if creating more Cleons could somehow be possible. A lot will depend on where season four picks back up with the story, though given how we left things, it seems likely there won\u2019t be another 150-year gap.
All this is to say that we love Lee Pace and we hope Foundation finds a sci-fi way to keep him on the show. You can watch all three seasons of Foundation on Apple TV+ now.<\/p>\n