'Foundation' Season 2: Lee Pace, Laura Birn and Cassian Bilton Tease 'Bloodbath' of a Power Struggle (Exclusive)

Any unity once held by the Cleons is gone in Foundation Season 2, as the unraveling loyalties – plus a vengeful queen – threaten to destroy the Empire from within. Prior to the July 14 Season 2 premiere of the Apple TV+ show, Lee Pace, Cassian Bilton and Laura Birn opened up to PopCulture.com about the "chess game" and "bloodbath" playing out this season in the palace. 

"I think it's interesting with the Cleons, because they try and use different tactics to work around each other, but then also use the same tactics of their parents to move around each other as well," explained Bilton, who plays Brother Dawn. "[This season], it's almost like a chess game within that palace. Everyone's trying to out-maneuver each other and basically survive."

While the Cleons once appeared a "very united family, at least from the outside," it turns into "a bit of a bloodbath" for the Cleons once Brother Day, played by Pace, decides to take his fate into his own hands. "He's the main one causing trouble when it comes to the kind of cycle of Cleons ... the imperishable permanence of the dynasty as it was," Pace told PopCulture. "I think he sees himself very much as an individual and he's claiming his right to write his own destiny."

"I find this disruptor mentality compelling, interesting," Pace continued. "I think that it's another symptom of the Cleonic ego that they think, 'Well, obviously I'm the best one. Obviously, I'm the one who's stronger than the rest. All those other clone chumps can go to the back of the line because I'm here and I'm going to change things.'" 

It's there that Brother Day's conflict with Demerzel comes in, with the Season 1 finale conflict between the two serving as "such an interesting base" for the relationship of Birn's long-serving android assistant with the new Cleon. "Obviously it's a new man, but for her, they're all the same. They're the continuation of Cleon the First, so she remembers every one of them, and they all originate from one man and from one man's mind," Birn told PopCulture. "What I love about her is that the silent power, the ego in the palace, the men have immense ego, but her power is very silent and very dangerous, I think, because it's so held back and it's very invisible, but very smart at the same time."

There's a newcomer looking to shake things up in the palace as well – Queen Sareth, played by Ella-Rae Smith – who uses her wit and charm on a secret quest for revenge. "She is formidable," Bilton teased. "I think certainly for us Cleons – as much as you can like the Cleons, they do live in an almost exclusively male environment, only talking to each other. It's almost like a nightmare for them."

"The only female interaction they have is women that they sleep with, whose memories are erased, or a female robot," he continued. "For a woman, in all her strength and power, to come in and really take the reins, it's new for them, but it's fun for the audience." Foundation Season 2 debuts globally on Apple TV+ Friday, July 14. New episodes will be released weekly through Sept. 15.