Diksha Sundriyal
Apple TV+’s sci-fi series ‘Foundation’ takes the audience into a world where humanity has dominated the galaxy but is also facing an imminent fall. The story starts with Hari Seldon and Gaal Dornick forming the Foundation, which is supposed to be humanity’s life raft when the Galactic Empire falls. In the third season, they face an unprecedented enemy in the form of the Mule, who completely upends their plans.
The season ends on a massive cliffhanger that will be addressed in the fourth season, which was greenlit on September 11, 2025, a day before the Season 3 finale. Ian Goldberg had been announced as the new showrunner, replacing co-creator David Goyer, in February 2025, which is also when the writers’ room assembled to start working on the storyline for the next season. The filming is slated to begin in early 2026, which means that if all goes well in the production’s timeline, the next season might land sometime in 2027.
Foundation Season 4 Will Bring Humanity Back to Earth
The third season ends with the fall of the Empire as Brother Dusk transforms into Brother Darkness after killing Demerzel and Day and destroying any possibility of bringing back the Cleons. Meanwhile, the Second Foundation finds refuge in Trantor, thanks to Demerzel, and Gaal comes face to face with the real Mule, who turns out to be Bayta Mallow. To top it off, the final scene has the robot head, which Day brought from Mycogen, sparking back to life and sending a signal to a secret base on the Earth’s Moon, where we find Kalle with another robot. With all of this, the fourth season is set up for massive storylines.
The series is based on the Foundation book series by Isaac Asimov, and the third season primarily focuses on the events of ‘Foundation and Empire.’ The next season is expected to borrow elements from multiple books, like ‘Second Foundation,’ ‘Foundation’s Edge,’ and ‘Foundation and Earth.’ Since the show has brought its own twist to Asimov’s story and does not religiously follow the source material, we can expect some new, unexpected turns, much like what Season 3 offered, keeping even the fans of the books on their toes. In an interview, David Goyer revealed that Earth was always supposed to come back into the picture, especially since it’s considered a lost, mythical planet in the history of the Galactic Empire.
He thought he’d get there by the end of the fifth season, after the Mule storyline had been wrapped up, but he decided to bring it at the end of the third season, because it seemed to fit with the fall of the Empire. The next season will expand upon this, shedding more light on Robot Wars, how the robots and Kalle ended up on the Moon, and how they have been influencing the fate of humanity all this time. At the same time, the threat of the Mule is stronger than before. Bayta has finally taken center stage, and with the fall of the First Foundation and the Empire, the Second Foundation remains her most pressing concern. Still, there is another curveball in the form of Dusk, aka Darkness, who has a Death Star-type weapon at his disposal. All of these storylines will collide to deliver a gripping Season 4.
Foundation Season 4 Will Break the Pattern of the First Three Seasons
The story of ‘Foundation’ stretches across centuries, with each season featuring a time jump of at least a few decades. This also means that, apart from a group of core characters, almost the entire cast is replaced to bring in new characters. However, the finale of Season 3 dictates a break in this pattern, which means there will be more familiar faces in the next season. The main characters like Hari Seldon (Jared Harris), Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell), Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann), and Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton) are expected to come back. Due to their shocking deaths in the Season 3 finale, the fate of Brother Day (Lee Pace) and Demerzel (Laura Birn) hangs in the balance. However, we wouldn’t count them out so easily. There are more ways than one for a person to come back to life, and we don’t know what trick the writers will pull in Season 4.
While Pilou Asbæk’s character meets a gruesome end at the hands of Gaal, the Mule is not out of the picture just yet. Bayta (Synnøve Karlsen) is revealed to be the real Mule, and the next season will focus on her search for the Second Foundation. Other characters expected to return alongside her are Cody Fern’s Toran Mallow, Tómas Lemarquis’ Magnifico Giganticus, Brandon P. Bell’s Han Pritcher, and Alexander Siddig’s Dr. Ebling Mis. The Second Foundation’s Preem Palver (Troy Kotsur) and Ambassador Quent (Cherry Jones) will also play major roles in the next chapter of the show. We also expect Rowena King’s Kalle to receive an expansion in her role, with a new cast of characters joining the series to further expand its universe.
Foundation Season 4 Will Unravel Already Unhinged Characters
While the first two seasons had the Foundation up against the Cleons as tyrants drunk on power, the third season sees the rise of another such power in the form of the Mule. With Dusk sitting on the throne, with no Day, Dawn, or Demerzel to counsel him into sanity, and the Novocula, with the power of destroying entire planets, at his disposal, things couldn’t have been any worse for the galaxy. At the same time, Bayta has control of the First Foundation, and with the Empire at its weakest, she will continue her conquest of the galaxy, while also searching for the Second Foundation. With both these bloodthirsty enemies aware of their existence, the people of the Second Foundation face quite a challenge when it comes to their survival.
While Bayta and Dusk might be dangerous, they are not the only ones to unravel in the next season. The third season gives us an insight into the mind of the Vault’s Hari, who is stuck in a digital form and is desperate to come out of it. Gaal tricks him into helping her, but before fleeing New Terminus, she tells him that she cannot help him. He is left behind, feeling utterly betrayed. This could lead him to lash out, since he’s also proven prone to tantrums, which does not spell good for anyone, let alone Gaal who has not only lost the fight against the Mule (at least for now) but is also left adrift since the Second Foundation has fled Ignis without telling her where they’ve gone, which had been the plan all along.
Read More: Who is Magnifico Giganticus in Foundation? Who Plays Him?
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