Psionics and Prophecy in Foundation’s New Season

Premiering on July 11 with new episodes to air weekly until September 12, season 3 of Apple TV+’s new Foundation series is the first to feature such a dense slate of episodes. Foundation season 3 drops its official trailer and promises epic stakes, revelations from Isaac Asimov’s novel, and new horrors for the galaxy to face. The trailer itself is a delicious teaser, setting up a momentous future for Foundation where our heroes might finally see their efforts come to fruition. They might also see their galaxy torn asunder by an adversary unlike any they have ever faced before.

Foundation, a series best described as something close to a high-budget visual poem to Asimov’s far-ranging opus of the same name, has been boldly changing its source material in telling its story. Spanning centuries, the first and second seasons both ended with notable time skips, the first of 138 years and the second an indeterminate period that explored the pivotal Second Crisis of the Foundation’s history. For its part, the Foundation twisted its trajectory in weaponizing the same religious fervor that once brought down the Galactic Empire. We were also introduced to the “Mentalics,” a hidden colony of psionically gifted individuals.

In its third season, Foundation will jump ahead 152 years after the events of the second season and place itself deep in what is canonically known as the Third Crisis. The official synopsis from Apple TV+ explains that, by this point, the Foundation has become far more entrenchment than it was in its first two centuries. The Galactic Empire, on the other hand, finds its once indomitable Cleonic Dynasty on shaky ground. With each on the verge of collapse by outside and inside forces alike, they are united in their opposition to a singular new force of destruction: the Mule. The Mule is described as a mysterious warlord who combines military force with the power to bend people’s will to his own.

In the trailer, we are introduced to the Mule, played by Pilou Asbæk. He is the new face of darkness, a force like no other the series has shown us before. “I can turn enemies into allies. Hate into love,” he says with confidence and chilling coldness. “It only takes a little nudge.” This is Hari Seldon, voiced by Jared Harris in the trailer, responding with a counter, ominously cryptic warning: “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, played by Lou Llobell and clearly on the rise, also appears in the trailer to shout in the quiet: “We’re out of time!”

The trailer is a taste of such a moment and the flashy brutality that would come with that time. The series returns stars Lee Pace, Cassian Bilton, and Terrence Mann as imperial clones Brother Day, Brother Dawn, and Brother Dusk, as well as Harris as Hari Seldon and Llobell as Gaal Dornick and Laura Birn as the scheming and fearsome android, Eto Demerzel. Brand new cast members include Alexander Siddig as Dr. Ebling Mis, a zealous devotee of Hari Seldon who styles himself a self-taught psychohistorian; Troy Kotsur as Preem Palver, leader of a planet of psychic warriors; and Cherry Jones as Foundation ambassador Quent. Also joining the cast are Brandon P. Bell as Han Pritcher, Synnøve Karlsen as Bayta Mallow, Cody Fern as Toran Mallow, Tómas Lemarquis as the decadent Magnifico Giganticus, Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing as Song, and Leo Bill as Mayor Indbur.

A New Enemy for a Galaxy on the Brink

Foundation has always been about one central conceit from Asimov’s stories: the science of “psychohistory.” The quasi-discipline sought to unite the statistical analysis of mathematics with the sociology of human behavior to mathematically predict the broad arcs of history. It was introduced by the first season as an uneasy certainty for Hari Seldon, the series protagonist played by Jared Harris, in making up his mind about how to save humanity. That presumption, as well as the ability of the Seldon Plan to course correct against its will, may all be in doubt this season with the Mule in play. With his power to alter people’s feelings and behavior to a frightening degree, it may not be probabilities that matter, but willpower and sheer chance.

Beyond the powerhouse performance from Asbæk, the trailer is packed with promise for the visual splendor we can expect from the third season. Rich costumes, alien vistas, and engaging action sequences bookend the trailer in anticipation of the conflicts to come. The emotional pull of a looming galactic conflict that could be apocalyptic this time around is what will hook many viewers, however. With major action figures like Brother Dawn and Brother Day facing extinction-level threats with terrifying regularity and the question of the Seldon Plan’s survival a matter of the galactic consciousness itself, the audience will be on the edge of their seats in week 1 and each installment after.

Season 3 of Foundation has the opportunity to go even further than its predecessors, both in terms of its storytelling stakes and in world-building detail. Season 3’s fourteen episodes will release on a weekly schedule, beginning on July 11 and running through September 12. With big names and even bigger spectacle, Foundation has the chance to be as much of a gateway series into science fiction as a lot of its inspirations in the books. It will have to face its biggest foe yet to do it, however. If seasons 1 and 2 were about the pieces of Seldon’s plan falling into place, season 3 looks like it might be all about whether the plan can hold when it’s stressed to the breaking point. The arrival of the Mule may not only signal the end of galactic peace but also the very possibility of predicting humanity’s future.