Apple TV Plus' Foundation hires Game of Thrones star to play The Mule in season 3 cast shake-up
Pilou Asbaek makes the leap for one prestige drama to another
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Applehas revealed a spate of new hires for season 3 of its hit sci-fi seriesFoundation, and one of its new actors is taking over the role of the villainous Mule.
PerDeadline, the popularApple TV Plusshow’s ranks have swelled in recent weeks with the addition of eight new faces. Among that contingent are Pilou Asbaek, who played Euron Greyjoy in HBO’s TV adaptation ofGame of Thrones, and Emmy winner Cherry Jones, who cameoed as Nan Pierce inSuccession, another hit drama for HBO.
Curiously, Asbaek has been drafted in to play The Mule, a powerful psychic mutant warlord who’ll pose the greatest threat yet to Hari Seldon, Gaal Dornick, and the rest of the show’s merry band of heroes. Mikael Persbrandt, who was cast as the prescient villain in the series' second season, was expected to return to portray the same character again inFoundationseason 3. Clearly, that’s no longer the case, although Deadline hasn’t specified why Persbrandt won’t be back to play The Mule once more.
TechRadar has reached out to Apple for an official comment on the recasting, and we’ll update this article if we hear back. For now, here’s the lineup of new faces you can expect to see inFoundation’s third season, and where you might have seen them previously:
More woe for Apple’s flagship sci-fi show
The Mule’s surprise recasting inFoundationseason 3 is just the latest production issue to plague the beleaguered series on one of the world’sbest streaming services.
Last December, all seemed well for one of thebest Apple TV Plus shows' future, withApple renewingFoundationfor a well deserved third season. Since then, though, things haven’t been plain sailing.
In early February, we reported thatFoundationseason 3 faced an agonizing filming delayamid numerous production problems, which included the slashing of the series' production budget. Less than two weeks later, it seemed things were back to normal – with a filming restart date announced,Foundationseason 3 was no longer in limbo.
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But the show’s problems were far from over. In what proved to be a chaotic February for the big-budget sci-fi series, showrunner David S. Goyerwas said to have stepped back from leading production onFoundationseason 3. Goyer was not only its showrunner, but also the series' head writer, main director, and one of its executive producers. Reports indicate that he’s still involved in the third season’s production, but Bill Bost – one of Goyer’s fellow producers – is now in charge of handling its filming schedule and post-production phase.
Given the amount of upheaval it’s faced, it’ll be a long time beforeFoundationmakes its return on Apple TV Plus. In the meantime, read ourFoundationseason 2 ending explainedarticle to see what its finale set up for the season to come.
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As TechRadar’s senior entertainment reporter, Tom covers all of the latest movies, TV shows, and streaming service news that you need to know about. You’ll regularly find him writing about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, and many other topics of interest.
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