Apple TV+’s Invasion Season 3 promises bigger battles, deeper drama

If you’ve been looking to binge on Apple TV+ originals but couldn’t quite decide between the various heavy-hitters the platform has been putting out, chances are you may have skipped over Invasion. Apple’s sci-fi epic set during a mysterious alien invasion has developed a dedicated following, but also accumulated some mixed reviews (particularly early on) for its commitment to slow-burn pacing during its first season.

To some, the writing and performances of its early episodes suffered as it tried to juggle all the characters and locations it set up as part of its larger “tapestry.” Even diehard fans of the show have sometimes expressed the sentiment of a love/hate relationship with the drama.

All of that said, there’s no denying that Invasion has had its share of strong points. For one, it has generally been visually striking, and its creative team has set their sights on bold and big-picture thematic approaches, even if not all of it was entirely successful. Apple TV+ has now officially released the trailer for Invasion season 3, however, and there’s a feeling that this latest installment will help the show finally live up to the potential it has suggested from the start.

Invasion Was Created by the Team Behind ‘Hunters’ and the ‘X-Men’ Movies

Invasion was created by David Weil, who was one of the showrunners on the Netflix series Hunters, and Simon Kinberg, the producer and writer who worked on numerous X-Men films, most recently X-Men: Days of Future Past, which was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.

Kinberg also wrote and produced the Oscar-nominated sci-fi thriller The Martian. Along with Weil and their executive team, the two have been shepherding Invasion from the beginning. As for the show’s premise, the basic idea behind it is an intriguing one: a genre-spanning drama told from the perspective of an alien invasion as it is being experienced by regular people in different parts of the world.

English, Japanese, and Pashto are all spoken, but no matter how wide-ranging the story became or how many characters were introduced, Invasion has largely tried to keep the focus on the most human elements of its story.

Invasion Season 1 Took Its Time to Unpack the Oncoming Horror

Invasion’s first season generally succeeded at both of those goals. That first installment covered the early days of the mysterious alien threat, and as such, there was a sense that the series was trying to find a balance between characters slowly coming to grips with the world-changing reality and the larger, sci-fi action stakes developing in the background. In some ways, the aliens themselves took a back seat to the very human drama of the different interpersonal and character conflicts playing out in the foreground.

Critics and viewers who were looking for a more action-forward alien invasion blockbuster were quickly disappointed by Invasion’s pacing, but that first season did set the table for a series that had a more intimate approach to sci-fi, with the horror and drama of its premise played out on a very personal level. It was also an immediate tragedy, with people dying almost as soon as the extraterrestrial threat was revealed.

Season 1 ended with the full scope of the invasion becoming a foregone conclusion, but season 2 changed things up. It opened with more action and a higher level of global stakes as the show explored what the characters did in the immediate aftermath of the alien threat taking over the planet. For the most part, this strategy of more action and a faster pace worked well, with season 2 benefiting from the way the characters had to adapt to their new circumstances.

The Invasions Left Humans Trapped on a Planet Ruled by Aliens

The world had essentially become unrecognizable by the time season 2 ended, and the surviving human population had largely been pushed into small enclaves of protected safe zones where they were free to move about under threat of dire consequences. Humanity’s battle to survive became one of various factions vying to make it in whatever way possible, often at the expense of anyone who got in their way. The concept of what it means to be human in a world so radically altered is one that the show has toyed with throughout.

Season 3 Looks Like the High-Stakes Combination We’ve Been Waiting For

Season 3, as the trailer makes clear, will be the first time all the series’ disparate storylines converge. Set two years after the previous installment, the once-rival main characters from around the world will come together for the first time on a high-stakes mission. They will attempt to infiltrate the alien mothership and somehow find a way to get the upper hand against their invaders.

The mother of all invasions, so to speak. The aliens have also made a substantial leap in their evolutionary progression, developing what the show describes as their “apex” form, which features extraterrestrial tendrils that spread across the planet with deadly results.

A Combined Effort Will Be Necessary to Combat the Aliens

These developments will set the stage for the battle of all battles, with the trailer indicating that it will take all the strengths of the various surviving characters to unite their strengths if humanity is to have any chance of surviving. As the characters set out on their mission, existing relationships will be tested while new ones are forged.

Returning from previous seasons of Invasion are Golshifteh Farahani as Aneesha Malik; Shioli Kutsuna as Mitsuko Yamato; Shamier Anderson as Trevante Cole; India Brown as Jamila Hudson; Shane Zaza as the much-loathed tech entrepreneur Nikhil Kapur; and Enver Gjokaj as Clark Evans. Erika Alexander, known for a number of TV and film roles, most recently for her role on reboots of Martin and Murder, has been added to the cast as a new series regular.