Where Does I, Robot Fit Into Apple TV+'s Foundation Universe?
Contains spoilers for the "Foundation" book series
The both galaxy and decades-spanning story told so far in Season 1 of Apple TV+'s sci-fi series "Foundation" largely alternates between a few groups of primary characters. One of those main groups is comprised of the heads of a millennia-old Galactic Empire. At the helm of the Empire are three clones of a long-dead ruler named Cleon I. His clones at any given point in time during their genetic dynasty exist in three stages of life: Dawn (Cassian Bilton) is a young boy, Day (Lee Pace) is a middle-aged adult, and Dusk (Terrence Mann) is an elderly man. Assisting not just the clones introduced in "Foundation" thus far, but every clone of Cleon I over the course of a thousands-of-years-long history is a robot named Eto Demerzel (Laura Birn).
It's revealed midway into the series that Demerzel's mechanical nature is significant due to the fact that virtually every other robot in existence was supposedly destroyed in what were known as the Robot Wars sometime in the past. Furthermore, the existence of the Robot Wars in the "Foundation" show hints at a canonical link established in its literary source material to "I, Robot," another work by author Isaac Asimov.
The events of I, Robot theoretically happened thousands of years before the start of Foundation
Initially, the universes of Isaac Asimov's "I, Robot" and "Foundation" were separate from one another. As recounted by a user in a Stack Exchange thread discussing the links between the two works, however, Asimov attempted to tie multiple prior books of his into the "Foundation" universe in a novel called "Foundation's Edge," published in 1982. Then in a book titled "Robots and Empire" published in 1985, he explicitly revealed how the robots from "I, Robot" persisted into the seemingly robot-less world of "Foundation," canonically linking the two works to each other for good.
One notable plot point following the merging of these universes was a reveal that R. Daneel Olivaw, the robot protagonist of "I, Robot," exists and had always existed in secret throughout "Foundation." Knowing this, in the wake of the "Foundation" series premiere, Reddit user SC-Raiker recognized that Eto Demerzel could be Daneel's alter ego should the series choose to adapt this component of its source material.
Given that "Foundation" has yet to delve into either Demerzel's origin or the particulars of the Robot Wars, it's unclear whether or not the events of "I, Robot" are canonical to the "Foundation" TV series. That said, the brief description of the Robot Wars provided to viewers thus far is reminiscent of the events of "I, Robot," leaving open the possibility for an eventual link between the two works as the series continues into its second season.