Mule-ing around the Galaxy: Foundation season 3 goes full Psychohistory (trailer).

The Empire is crumbling, the maths is mutinous, and someone’s finally taken the term “mind games” a bit too literally. Yes, Foundation returns for its third season on July 11th via Apple TV+, and this time, it’s war. Or, rather, The Mule.

For those who’ve been clutching their first editions of Isaac Asimov’s works like sacred relics (or using them to balance an unsteady coffee table—no judgement), Foundation has been one of the more ambitious sci-fi television undertakings of the past decade. Season 3 picks up a neat 152 years after Season 2, because when you’re dealing with psychohistory, time is less of a river and more of a spiral staircase… with missing steps and the occasional space warlord lurking on the landing.

The once-humble Foundation has now flowered into a formidable force, setting up shop far and wide across the galaxy like the sci-fi equivalent of a really tenacious chain of bookshops. Meanwhile, the Cleonic Dynasty—the galaxy’s longest-running clone-based family drama—is showing signs of fraying around the genetically identical edges. The Emperor’s power is fading, though his wardrobe remains fabulously draped and ominously shoulder-padded.

Enter The Mule, a name that should instil terror, but sounds slightly like he should be delivering contraband in a gritty crime drama. Don’t let the name fool you, though—this chap is no beast of burden. He’s a telepathic warlord with a penchant for mind control, universal domination, and possibly, dramatic monologues. Fans of the books will know The Mule as one of Asimov’s most terrifying and unpredictable creations: a mutant anomaly in Hari Seldon’s otherwise carefully crafted future predictions. He is, in short, the psychohistorical equivalent of someone sneezing in the middle of a Rube Goldberg machine.

With Hari Seldon still playing ghost-in-the-machine (or is he?), and Gaal Dornick increasingly burdened with the weight of a galaxy’s fate and several centuries’ worth of exposition, the chessboard is once again set. The Cleons are twitchy, Demerzel is likely pulling more strings than a galactic marionette, and the narrative twists look set to spiral faster than a jump ship running on spicy dark matter.

Apple’s adaptation has never shied away from reinterpreting Asimov’s material with cinematic flair and liberal changes—sometimes to the delight, sometimes to the despair, of diehard purists. But if the first two seasons were any indication, expect more visually sumptuous space opera, pontificating philosophers, android angst, and philosophical punch-ups.

Here at SFcrowsnest, we love this kind of sprawling, idea-rich space fantasy that dares to blend political intrigue with telepathic terror. If Season 3 can stick the landing—no easy feat when one’s metaphorical landing pad is being dismantled by a mutant despot with mind powers—it might just cement Foundation as one of the great modern sci-fi series.

And if it doesn’t? Well, at least it’ll be pretty while it collapses. Like the Empire.

Potential Spoilers: based on the books, anyway.

So, The Mule appears — arguably Asimov’s most terrifying curveball, and the character who made psychohistory cry into its spreadsheets. If you’re wondering how this telepathic troublemaker fits into the grand scheme of Foundation, here’s a spoiler-light crash course (though beware, mild spoilers from the books and possibly the series ahead).

In Asimov’s original Foundation series, The Mule appears midway through the saga, during Foundation and Empire (Book 2), and he promptly breaks everything. Hari Seldon’s grand plan for saving civilisation — a mathematical prediction system that charts the course of humanity’s future — works well enough until this chap turns up. Why? Because Seldon’s psychohistory assumes that individuals don’t matter. The future is driven by the masses, not the quirks of lone megalomaniacs.

But The Mule isn’t your average warlord. He’s a mutant, one born with the unique and wholly unpredictable ability to manipulate emotions and control minds. He doesn’t charm armies into following him — he literally rewires their loyalty. With that kind of power, he doesn’t just disrupt the Seldon Plan — he shreds it, sets fire to the remains, and uses them to light his victory cigar.

He begins as a mysterious figure, taking over star systems with uncanny ease. No one knows who he is, where he came from, or why he’s named after a famously infertile animal. That last point becomes plot-relevant later on, in a twist worthy of classic pulp sci-fi.

What makes The Mule such an enduring villain is precisely that unpredictability. He’s a ghost in the machine of determinism. Seldon’s mathematical certainty is no match for a mutant with the power to instil fanatical loyalty. In essence, The Mule is the ultimate “What if one person could make a difference?” scenario — only instead of a plucky hero, it’s a galactic dictator with psychic powers and a rather large inferiority complex.

Apple’s version of Foundation has so far delighted in remixing the source material. The Mule’s introduction at the end of Season 2 was a tantalising hint, and if Season 3 follows even half of the twists from the books, we’re in for a ride that could make Dune look like a pleasant desert holiday.

Whether the TV Mule will be the tragic, emotionally stunted figure of Asimov’s novels or something more sleekly villainous remains to be seen — but either way, brace yourself. The Seldon Plan is about to get well and truly mule-kicked.