Alien tendrils spread across Earth in Invasion Season 3

If you’re an Apple TV+ subscriber, chances are you’ve probably caught at least a couple of episodes of one of the service’s major early successes, Invasion. It’s also likely that it may have gotten a little lost in the shuffle, overshadowed by the buzz of two other major Apple TV+ shows that also got significant attention in 2019: Silo and Foundation.

While it had plenty of die-hard fans, Invasion received more mixed reviews than either of those shows, and in part because it was slow-burning from the first season, more than a few people (even some self-professed fans) said they had love/hate relationships with the series.

But to be fair, it had some aspects that were hard to ignore. The cinematography has been very impressive throughout, and the creators (many of whom also have credits on X-Men movies) have attempted to go big with their themes and their ambitions. They haven’t always hit the mark, but Apple TV+ has now released the trailer for the third season of Invasion, and it looks like the show is ready to let loose.

The show’s premise is an alien invasion, but told from the perspective of a group of ordinary people in a variety of locations around the world. Subtitles and different languages are used throughout, though English, Japanese, and Pashto seem to be the primary three.

Season 1 Took Place Over the Initial Stages of the Invasion

Invasion has three major parts to its first season: it opens with a sequence where an alien is being brought to Earth by a ship. He has two major purposes: he can also open a gate for ships to travel through, and he’s super strong. Once on Earth, he’s free to wander around as much as he likes, but is also being tracked by a young boy and his family.

Over the first half of the season, a ton of time is spent with the family just as they are going about their lives, encountering the aliens, and then finally making a huge discovery about how the aliens work that makes them much more powerful. It was a clever way to approach the story, even if it sometimes took a long time to get going, and when the full-scale invasion hits at the end of the season, the humans are outmatched in every way possible.

The reason for the first season being so focused on the human element of this worldwide problem was to spend some time with these people and get to know them. For all its (often justified) criticism, the series had found its footing in its ways, even if it spent a lot of time setting up the next part of the story.

Season 2 Was Full of Action, Building to an Even Bigger Invasion

Season 2 started much more in-your-face, with human life now on a big clock for how long they have before the invasion gets going. The show also did a pretty major shake-up in terms of the quality of the actors and the actual characters, with more people moving around and new relationships forming. The stakes were upped as well, with more deaths and an understanding that while humanity was able to fortify some areas for survival, it was tenuous at best. New characters included a divisive tech billionaire who may or may not be pulling some strings behind the scenes.

While there was still a slower pacing in season 2, Invasion had found a good stride by combining human elements with the more intense action of what was happening to the planet at large. When season 3 arrives later this year, it’ll get the chance to play to some of these strengths, as well as unify several of the main characters in one location.

Invasion Season 3 Trailer Teases Major Enemies, High Stakes

Invasion’s third season will be hitting Apple TV+ in 2025, and the main thrust of this new season will be bringing some of the show’s main characters together in a risky plan to go after the aliens at their source. As the trailer and release notes for season 3 describe, the humans have two years to prepare. The aliens have evolved to what the show describes as their “apex” form. Deadly tendrils reach out across the globe, turning both human and alien civilizations into a new, twisted, post-apocalyptic wasteland. The stakes have never been higher.

In the first season, much of the drama was kept at a human level, with less focus on the actual physical danger the aliens posed than on how the events of the season were affecting those around them. Season 2 provided some of that, and the third season has the chance to dial it up even more as the remaining characters band together to attempt an assault on the mothership itself.

Some of the characters will remain as they are at the start of the season (at least initially). There are new additions, as well, but most of the main people that viewers are familiar with are on board for a new year on the show. Returning actors include Golshifteh Farahani as Aneesha Malik; Shioli Kutsuna as Mitsuko Yamato; Shamier Anderson as Trevante Cole; India Brown as Jamila Hudson; Shane Zaza as Nikhil Kapur, the human “bad guy”; and Enver Gjokaj as Clark Evans.

The third season of Invasion premieres August 22, 2025, on Apple TV+.