Apple TV+ Releases Epic Trailer for Foundation Season 3

Apple TV+ has released the official trailer for Foundation season 3, which arrives on July 11, 2025. On July 11, the new installment will drop, with weekly episodes following until September 12.

Season 3 trailers reveal a potentially galaxy-shattering new crisis, new conflicts, and a new and even more powerful iteration of one of Asimov’s most infamous antagonists. The trailer hints at a force unlike any other the galaxy has ever seen: the Mule.

The series, which diverges from Asimov’s novels at times, tells the story of psychohistorian Hari Seldon over centuries, with season 1 ending 138 years after it began and season 2 following a crisis and an impending war between the Foundation and the imperial government known as the Second Crisis. Foundation took a more subversive turn in the second season, weaponizing psionic faith to spread its message and begin to expand.

Season 3, according to a new teaser trailer, takes place 152 years after the second season’s conclusion, putting the new installment at the tail end of what’s called in Asimov’s canon the Third Crisis. The show’s official synopsis, which echoes Asimov’s language: “Since its earliest days, the Foundation has grown more widespread and influential. The once-mighty Cleonic Dynasty, however, is rapidly losing power. Threatened from both within and without, these great enemies are forced to turn to one another for help as a third adversary, greater than either of them, arises to destroy them all. The Mule is coming.”

The trailer, not entirely surprisingly, is packed with action and explosions and hints of new intrigue and wonders for audiences to experience. In a nod to the weight of history bearing on the future, the trailer’s first voice comes from Hari Seldon: “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, who has been gaining more and more prominence each season, follows up, “We’re out of time.”

The Mule, a new antagonist played by Pilou Asbæk, appears to have a knack for psycho-manipulation and bending others to his will. “I can turn enemies into allies. Hate into love,” he intones. “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, respectively. Jared Harris also returns in his pivotal role as Hari Seldon. Lou Llobell and Laura Birn are also confirmed to be back as Gaal Dornick and Eto Demerzel.

Elsewhere in the cast are Brandon P. Bell as Han Pritcher, Synnøve Karlsen as Bayta Mallow, Cody Fern as Toran Mallow, Tómas Lemarquis as the bombastic Magnifico Giganticus, Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing as Song, and Leo Bill as Mayor Indbur.

An Enemy Without Compare

Foundation was always about Asimov’s “psychohistory,” a fictitious mathematics and sociology-based science that can make long-term predictions about general human behavior. The Mule, however, throws even this atypical calculus out of whack. He not only has massing and manipulating star-fleets and planet-spanning communities at his disposal. He also has the power to disrupt emotions and create as much unrest as he can.

But while space fleets, otherworldly strongholds, and outlandish technology create the world of Foundation, it’s the emotional pull of the characters and their world that the season will probably focus on. It’s been fun to see the construction of Hari Seldon’s plan across seasons 1 and 2, but it’s going to be much more thrilling and—frankly—exciting to see if any of it works. The Foundation seems primed to go full Band of Brothers and fight to save their work. But it’s anyone’s guess as to how things will work out in the face of The Mule’s challenge.