The Cleons Are Back in Foundation Season 3

Apple TV+ has released the official trailer for the third season of Foundation, its costly, visually stunning, widescreen take on Isaac Asimov’s famous sci-fi novel series. In it, viewers see a glimpse of a galaxy-wide conflict, on an almost incomprehensibly apocalyptic scale. It’s also the first time that the show proper has focused on one of Asimov’s most powerful, enigmatic villains, a being simply known as the Mule. Season 3 will be released on July 11, 2025, and run weekly episodes until September 12.

Foundation is a show that takes many creative liberties with Asimov’s source material, but it still follows the novels’ broad strokes, which arc across centuries. For instance, the first season ended with a time jump of 138 years; the second season followed the Second Crisis, a major event bookending the novel Second Foundation, in which a war seemed to be coming between the Foundation and its rival, the Galactic Empire. The Foundation itself had adopted a far more aggressive line, weaponizing religious proselytism to expand its numbers and extend its territory. The series also introduced the “Mentalics,” a clandestine new colony of superpowered, psionically gifted humans.

Season 3 makes another leap through time, 152 years after the end of season 2, and finds itself in what is known in Asimov’s expanded lore as the Third Crisis. As Apple TV+’s description of the season states, “The Foundation has grown deep roots and risen to great power since Hari Seldon’s time, while the once-formidable Cleonic Dynasty is showing signs of weakness. But the two face a common enemy from within the galaxy: an unknown force that could obliterate everything the Foundation and the Empire have built. The Mule is here, a warlord with unmatched military might and the shocking ability to bend minds to his will.”

In the trailer, the show’s ongoing protagonist Hari Seldon, played by Jared Harris, opens with a quote which seems to reference an earlier moment in the series: “Centuries ago, when we predicted the fall of the galaxy, the Foundation was created to save humanity. But the coming darkness was always the turning point.” Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell), who has gradually increased in importance as the show’s action has shifted further into the future, follows with a simple line which seems to directly reference the series’ internal logic: “We’re out of time.”

As implied by the trailer, this season’s new villain, the Mule, is played by Pilou Asbæk, and he may have one of the series’ more unsettling superpowers: the ability to influence the emotional responses of others. “I can turn your enemies into allies. Hate into love,” he states, as explosions, space battles, and the collapse of city-states dance in the background. “It only takes a little nudge.”

Lee Pace, Cassian Bilton, and Terrence Mann reprise their roles as the three imperial clones Brother Day, Brother Dawn, and Brother Dusk. In addition, series leads Jared Harris and Lou Llobell reprise their roles as Hari Seldon and Gaal Dornick, respectively. Laura Birn also returns as the Foundation’s mysterious and influential leader, the android Eto Demerzel.

Season 3 sees a number of new faces added to the cast. Alexander Siddig will play Dr. Ebling Mis, a Hari Seldon fanatic and amateur psychohistorian; Troy Kotsur will play Preem Palver, the head of a planet full of psychic mentalics; and Cherry Jones will play the Foundation ambassador Quent. Brandon P. Bell will play Han Pritcher, Synnøve Karlsen will play Bayta Mallow, Cody Fern will play Toran Mallow, Tómas Lemarquis will play the Flamboyant Magnifico Giganticus, Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing will play Song, and Leo Bill will play Mayor Indbur.

A Threat from a Long-Ago Mystery

The heart of the Foundation is always going to be Asimov’s idea of “psychohistory.” Psychohistory is Asimov’s fictional scientific practice of using a combination of sociology and mathematical modeling to predict the large-scale movements of historical and political events. But this season, the show seems to be suggesting that even that could fail. In a season full of chaos and disruption, when people are acting against their own “predicted” best interests, are there any safety nets at all? If the Mule is destabilizing everything on an emotional level, can psychohistory continue to be an effective science of prediction and control?

Of course, just like the first two seasons, the aesthetics of the show are strong as well. The sweeping vistas of space, new civilizations richly and colorfully imagined, and a good amount of higher-stakes, space-based action define the trailer. But what’s most striking is a feeling of emotional tension in the trailer, and a sense that the galaxy’s biggest players may never see eye to eye in quite the same way again. Can the Empire and the Foundation be allies? Can psychohistory be preserved against the Mule’s direct assault on reason? And, in any future, is there a version of the future where the galaxy isn’t more or less doomed?

Season 3 seems to have most of the elements to explore these questions with even higher stakes, larger characters, and ambitious world-building. With weekly releases starting on July 11, Foundation’s third season looks like it will have something for fans of speculative fiction and expensive, big-scale TV series. If the first two seasons of the series were about laying out the building blocks of Seldon’s plan, it seems like the third is about seeing if that plan can withstand the impossible. If the Mule’s influence is enough to upend not just galactic peace, but the very idea that Seldon’s psychohistory was mathematically or probabilistically certain all along.