While being one of the most thoughtful and complex space epics currently on television, Apple TV+’s Foundation can hardly be called a strictly faithful adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s immortal novels. As showrunner David S. Goyer has pointed out more than once, the series is a “remix” of all the Foundation books, not just the trilogy, which is the most famous among the prose installments. And now, with a new trailer for the fast-approaching Foundation Season 3, one of the biggest and boldest changes from the books looks to be utterly justified.
As with the previous trailer for Foundation Season 3, this trailer makes it clear that the focus of the story this season is all about the Foundation clashing with the chaotic forces of the Mule (Pilou Asbæk). Roughly, this means that Foundation Season 3 will be drawing on elements from the latter half of the second book, Foundation and Empire, and much of the third book, Second Foundation. In those books, the Mule is a kind of rogue mutant telepath, whose mental powers of manipulation could not have been predicted by the prescient math of psychohistory. In a sense, in the books, the Mule is like the opposite of someone like Paul Atreides in Dune: a usurper who actually doesn’t align with any predestined prophecy or destiny.
But, unlike the books, what the TV series has done is plant a counter for the Mule in the form of Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell). Unlike the books in which Gaal is male, and really only exists in the first book, TV series Gaal has “mentalic” powers, which have manifested in both Season 1 and Season 2. The idea of “mentalics,” is a well-established part of the Asimov Foundation canon, with mentalic members of the Foundation playing huge roles in post-trilogy books like Foundation’s Edge. So, what the TV series has done by making Gaal a powerful mentalic is set her up as the foil for the Mule.
The new trailer makes this conflict abundantly clear in which we see Gaal say: “The Mule’s abilities are far beyond anything I can do.” In the books, Gaal didn’t end up in suspended animation, and thus, wasn’t hopping the centuries to face the Mule. But in the show, she can, and by giving her burgeoning telepathic abilities, she’s become the ultimate weapon in Seldon’s arsenal to put the preferred future of the Foundation back on track.
Does all of this mean we’ll see Gaal and the Mule in a kind of mind versus mind showdown at some point in Season 3? We may not have the predictive powers of psychohistory on our side, but if this new trailer is any indication, the answer to that question is a big yes.
