A gender-swapped and expanded version of the character is portrayed by Leah Harvey in the 2021 Apple TV+ television series adaptation Foundation.

[1]: 24–25 Josh Wimmer and Alasdair Wilkins of Gizmodo described Hardin as "a staggeringly brilliant politician" and "a lively, independent thinker who has a solid grasp on reality", in contrast with the Foundation's encyclopedists, whom they characterize as "pedantic academics with no grip on the real world".

"[2] He employs Foundation priests to bring new planets into this new empire, whereas future leaders like Hober Mallow use business deals to resolve crises and form alliances.

It's tricky to pull off a character who is so consciously meant to be larger-than-life—the constant cigar-chomping, the endless epigramming, the ceaseless seat-tilting–but I think Asimov nails it with Hardin.

"[2] They added: What makes Salvor Hardin so charming—it's that just when it looks like he's been utterly defeated, he ... unleashes a tidal wave of simply unimaginable ownage.

He shuts off an entire planet, takes down the entire command structure of the Anacreon military, humiliates King Lepold in front of his people by switching off his godly powers, gets his enemy's priggish son bloodied and beaten by a bunch of scared soldiers, reduces the ridiculously named Prince Wienis to a whimpering mess, all without lifting a finger—and then, for good measure, drives the evil Wienis to suicide with nothing but a weird fable and a force field ... Hardin doesn't really need a backstory ... when his schemes are that ingenious.

The planet is the home of the Foundation, an organization dedicated to the predictive science of psychohistory, invented by famed mathematician and psychologist Hari Seldon.

The three issue a joint ultimatum that all be allowed to receive nuclear technology from Terminus City, ensuring that the Foundation is indispensable to all.

Maddened by this failure, Prince Regent Wienis of Anacreon orders Hardin's execution, but his royal guardsmen refuse to obey him.

[12] In "Death and the Maiden", the Anacreons round up colonists with the skills necessary to repair and crew the Invictus, a long-lost Imperial warship that Keaen plans to use to attack the Empire.

[13] They bring Hardin, Crast and the colonists aboard the Invictus in "Mysteries and Martyrs",[14] and after several casualties they manage to circumvent the security protocols and reach the bridge in "The Missing Piece".

[16][17] In the season one finale episode "The Leap", Seldon reveals that the true intent of the Foundation is to create a new civilization assisted by Anacreon and Thespis.

Years later, Dornick lands on her home planet, the ocean world Synnax, and finds another pod underwater, containing Hardin in stasis.