When Apple TV+ launched Foundation in 2021 with showrunner David Goyer, they took on one of the most daunting tasks in science fiction television: adapting Isaac Asimov’s sprawling, generation-hopping saga of psychohistory, decay, and rebirth. Now in its third season, the show has not only survived the ‘unadaptable’ label—it’s thriving, drawing in both Asimov purists and sci-fi newcomers alike with its grand visuals, philosophical themes, and richly drawn characters.
Foundation Season Three pushes further into uncharted territory, expanding the mythos, deepening character arcs, and introducing a villain whose presence ripples across the galaxy with The Mule.
The Story So Far: A Timeline of Collapse and Control
Across its first two seasons, Foundation has remained true to the fundamental tension that underpins Asimov’s source material: the slow decay of empire and the attempt to predict—or redirect—its collapse through the science of psychohistory. At the centre of it all is Hari Seldon, the genius who foresaw the fall and seeded the galaxy with the tools to rebuild.
Played by Jared Harris with both gravitas and wit, Seldon’s presence has taken multiple forms—alive, dead, resurrected, holographic, and, in his own words, “Vault-Hari.”
Season Two primarily saw Harris play two versions of Hari – Vault-Hari and the Hari who is accompanying his young protégé, Gaal Dornick. “They are very different in how they are approaching their interactions with people,” he explains of the two characters. “The Vault-Hari is still confident in his superiority… The Hari that is dealing with Gaal has both the pleasure and the shock of meeting somebody who’s at least as intelligent as he is.
“I really enjoyed the Hari last season, where it was a lot more physical. That was fun. The other version of Hari was written for somebody much older, really. I mean, all he does is sit down and talk, stand up and talk, and occasionally walk and talk,” he laughs.
Hari Seldon is truly a unique character in that he was once just a normal man. A genius, but normal. Now, centuries after Hari the man was born, he’s become a sort of Messiah, the entity that has predicted the end of the universe and has given his followers the tools to change that. For Harris, ensuring that complexity comes across is important, working with the show’s writers to effectively portray the man, the myth and the legend.
“That’s always the conversation at the beginning of each new season with the writers,” he nods. “That’s something that I’m invited to go and sit down with them and talk to them about it, and try to find a more effective way of having that be present in the storytelling.”
Season Three continues Hari’s evolution, adding an emotional layer to the metaphysical mastermind. “He’s more interested in the tangible things of what he’s forgotten. It’s like he’s forgotten what it’s like to taste, to smell, to feel sweat on your skin, and he’s trying to remember those things because they’ve become treasured memories to him,” Harris says. “The knowledge that he’s become disassociated from that human side is really starting to bother him.”
Empire in Flux: Dawn, Day, Dusk… and Rebirth
One of Foundation’s most ambitious departures from the books has been its exploration of the genetic dynasty that rules the galaxy. The Cleons—clones of the original Emperor Cleon I—exist in a tight triad of Dawn, Day, and Dusk (played respectively by Cassian Bilton, Lee Pace and Terrence Mann), endlessly replicating their own rule. But as Season Three begins, the cracks in that cycle are showing more than ever. Especially with the new knowledge that their DNA has been tampered with so that each iteration is a little different from the one before.
For the actors who play them, of course, the role is a strange one – playing the same character over and over with slight differences in each generation.
“It’s a conundrum,” Terrence Mann (who plays Brother Dusk) laughs when we ask him what that’s like. “It’s stepping into a comfortable pair of old shoes, and then it’s always new, because the storyline is always different, but not different.”
Cassian Bilton (Brother Dawn) agrees: “There’s a familiarity, inevitably, when you’re coming back to a show year on year, on year. There’s an element of confidence that comes with that. But in the same breath, it’s a testament to our writers, the fact that we’re presented with new challenges every time we get these scripts.”
Bilton, who has now played several versions of Dawn, reflects on the character’s growth: “I have a soft spot for season one Dawn, because I think he had a hard time and he just led with his heart. But Season Three Dawn really is the Dawn that I like more than any of them.”
For a character constantly reborn yet haunted by inherited traits, the role offers a layered kind of continuity. “He’s never the same because he’s always dying and being reinvented,” Bilton says, “and yet he is the same because he’s all born out of the genetics of one person. It’s a weird part, but a great part. We’re having fun doing it.”
The Lived-In Future: Gaal Dornick’s Ascendancy
Few characters in Foundation embody the series’ long view better than Gaal Dornick (played by Lou Llobell). Once a naïve mathematician from the outer reaches, Gaal has grown into a central figure in the fate of humanity.
Now over a hundred years old due to long bouts of cryo-sleep to ensure she’s alive with she’s needed most: the end of existence as we know it, the Gaal we see in Season Three is very different. “She’s been asleep for more than she’s been awake,” Llobell explains. “I had this thought: when she’s in cryo-sleep, is she still having thoughts or dreams? I don’t know that she does. It almost feels like maybe when she’s easing out of cryo-sleep, her consciousness comes back. But because of that, it means that she hasn’t actually lived those hundreds of years. And every time she wakes up, people have evolved, the world’s changed.”
The world isn’t the only thing that’s changed as we enter Season Three. All those years of cryo-sleep have changed Gaal, and we’ll see her grow and step more into the leader role.
For Llobell, Foundation Season Three Gaal was more aligned with who she is as a person. “I channelled more of myself into her,” she nods. “Even just the way she walks. She walks with a lot more confidence and a lot more relaxed. She was a bit more prim and proper, whereas now she almost feels a bit more lived in.
“With everything that she has to do this season and being that leader now, it was really important for her to give off that energy.”
A Villain of Mythic Scale: Enter The Mule
Speaking of giving off a certain energy, every great saga needs a great villain, and Season Three introduces one of Asimov’s most famous antagonists: The Mule. Played by Pilou Asbæk, he’s a powerful being capable of controlling emotion—a threat not just to individuals, but to psychohistory itself.
“If you compare him in the books to another villain, I would say he’s like Voldemort. He’s that iconic, he’s that evil, he’s that powerful,” says Asbæk.
The screen version of The Mule has been reshaped into something immediate and imposing, something a little different from the Mule we saw in Asimov’s novels. “The Mule in the book is more like a fool of the court, like a trickster. His physicality is very different,” Asbæk explains. “But on this show, we needed an immediate threat from the beginning. We needed someone who would come in, take the room, take control, and be a real danger to Empire and Foundation. That’s the reason why we changed it a bit. It’s all David Goyer’s imagination.”
But villainy, for Asbæk, is never one-note. “No one is a villain in their own story. Everyone just feels like they’re misunderstood. And I think that’s the case for The Mule as well.”
Of course, Asbæk is no stranger to playing villains, so he knows a thing or two about this, especially villains that have come from literature: “Me battling your imagination, I’m always going to lose. But you do your best, especially with a character like The Mule… I tried it on Game of Thrones. I did it on the Ghost in the Shell, which was based on the manga. I know the fans can be very, very, very, hostile. But I also know the fans can be very, very sweet and wonderful and thankful for me doing my best work possible under the given circumstances.
“I’ve done so many villains. Some of them have been pure evil. Some of them have had a bit more layer to them. It’s difficult because a villain is only as good as how it’s written. If I serve you shit, it will always be shit. You know what I mean? I can’t make it into a Caesar salad!”
For this villain, he relished the tragic depth behind the character. “That’s the reason why I wanted to do it, because I was sick and tired of doing villains,” he nods. “That’s the only offers I get: villains, villains, villains. But I do love them, and I love portraying them, because often it’s the most interesting and fun character of all of them. The antagonist is always more interesting than the protagonist.
“With The Mule, David promised me that we would make him much more nuanced, much more layered, much more unpredictable than anything I ever tried before. Now I just hope I get a whole film where I can be super evil and still be understood. That’s the goal.”
Sci-Fi Alchemy: Why It Works
Speaking of goals, Asimov’s Foundation books were famously cerebral and episodic—more about ideas than emotion, and largely lacking traditional structure or action. Many believed they couldn’t be adapted. And yet here we are: Season Three and counting.
For Llobell, she thinks it’s that development of Asimov’s stories into something new and daring, while still respecting the source, that is the core of why the series has thrived.
“I think the adaptation of it, and the expansion of ideas that are in the books… adding other ideas that are not in the books and fleshing characters out to more than maybe what they were in the books, while still keeping the essence of what Asimov wrote, but creating something new from it – that’s the reason it’s doing so well, and that we have more stories to tell, hopefully.”
Indeed, like the series itself, Foundation perfectly shows that legacies aren’t just inherited—they’re constantly rewritten. Every clone of Empire, every echo of Hari Seldon, every awakening of Gail Dornick pushes against the weight of what came before.
That legacy is clearly felt with the actors playing these iconic characters, whether it’s Jared Harris, who takes the time every season to speak to the writers about effectively portraying a man who’s also a Messiah, or Lou Llobell whose character has become so much more than a job: “I love her so much. She’s always going to be a part of me. She’s going to be with me forever.” In the end, the future isn’t a destination—it’s a legacy. And Foundation Season Three is here to shape it.
Foundation Season Three will premiere on Friday, 11 July 2025 exclusively on Apple TV+
