"Foundation" season 3 has been a wild ride so far. We're centuries into the future from the events of season 2, with new characters and new versions of Brothers Dawn, Day and Dusk to contend with. There have been unexpected alliances, and superpowers have fallen to a new villain — the Mule.
But with episode 7, the show's writers dropped an emotional bomb on us. In what might be the best episode of Apple TV Plus' sci-fi epic to date, we learned the backstory of the villainous mule, in all its shocking, horrifying glory.
If you haven't seen the episode yet, I'm not going to spoil it here, but let's just say that it's revealed that The Mule might be justified in wanting to destroy the universe as we know it. He's been betrayed in his past by those who should have loved him most, and he certainly has good reason to hold a grudge against the first Foundation.
The episode isn't entirely a flashback — there's plenty of consequence in the present timeline — but the reveal of the Mule's past and potentially an explanation for why he embarked on his violent, destructive future is the focal point of the episode, and what makes it so powerful.
So I sat down with show star Pilou Asbæk to discuss how he views his character's backstory.
'No one is born a villain'
Before season 3 began, I was privileged enough to see most of the season — I'm still just as in the dark about the finale as you are. I also got to sit down with many of the show's stars to discuss this season of "Foundation," and when I had a chance to talk to Asbæk, I knew I'd have to ask him about how learning the Mule's backstory impacted his portrayal of the character.
"I think if you have a trauma like he has, it’s very legit that he acts out the way he does," Asbæk responded when I asked him about the Mule's tragic origins. "For me, I think it’s very important when you create a villain — and first of all, this villain was created by [Isaac] Asimov.
"I’m just here standing on the shoulders of his incredible work. But when you create a villain, it’s in a collaboration with the showrunner, in this case, David Goyer. It’s in a collaboration with the director, the writers, the cast, the crew, the camera department, etc."
He intends to burn down the world.
Pilou Asbæk on the Mule
"So it’s not just your interpretation," he continued, referring to my inquiry about how the Mule's backstory shaped Asbæk's performance, "it is your color, in the big painting that will end up becoming the portrait of the Mule.
"And for me, I personally love when I can find some vulnerability in a villain. No one is a villain. No one is born a villain. It’s something you become by life, because life treats you shitty sometimes, sadly enough. And I think that’s the case with the Mule."
After watching the first six episodes of season 3, I felt that the closest comparison to the Mule as a character was Heather Ledger's Joker in "The Dark Knight." By no means am I comparing the performances, but both the Joker and the Mule seemed to have this desire to watch everything burn down, just for the chaos of it.
But after watching this episode, it's clear that the Mule has deeper motivations, far deeper than anything we see from Ledger's Joker, who, by his own words, is merely an agent of chaos. It's clear that the Mule was not always destined for this fate, or rather, that he only became destined for it after first being utterly broken as a child.
If I had to pull another Nolan's "Batman" trilogy comparison, I'd maybe argue that it's Tom Hardy's Bane that Asbæk's Mule is closest to, though that's being reductive. Both men were born from trauma — the dark, if you will — and have a desire to reshape the world order in their own image.
They also both have no qualms with reshaping the order of things in incredibly violent ways, and in the case of the Mule, I wouldn't expect his campaign of violence to stop just yet.
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Malcolm has been with Tom's Guide since 2022, and has been covering the latest in streaming shows and movies since 2023. He's not one to shy away from a hot take, including that "John Wick" is one of the four greatest films ever made.
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