Invasion Season 2 ended with a cliffhanger that saw Shamier Anderson's Trevante Cole and Billy Barratt's (of recent Bring Her Back fame) Caspar Morrow enter the alien mothership on a mission to end them for good. However, when Season 3 starts, the story jumps two years in the future, where the mothership is destroyed and the world is living in a peaceful, post-war time. Audiences are none the wiser as to what exactly happened on that spaceship.
The Direct's Russ Milheim sat down with Invasion co-creator and showrunner Simon Kinberg, where he revealed why the creative team chose to jump two years into the future instead of starting Season 3 right where the story left off.
Kinberg explained that they "wanted to surprise people with the way this season started. He elaborated, noting that the team "Was also interested in seeing our characters trying to go back to some sense of normalcy, like what they would be like in the post-war times, or post-invasion times." Though, fans shouldn't worry about not seeing what happened at the end of Season 2, with Kinberg adding that he "felt like it'd be interesting to use flashbacks to tell some of the story of what happened on that ship."
Kinberg also teased how the alien threat will evolve in Season 3, declaring that this will be "The first time that we show what we call the Apex aliens, who are really the sentient aliens behind this invasion." The producer explained that they wanted the alien "[feel] like it has intelligence and personality even."
He claimed that "Designing this Apex alien was definitely, from a visual standpoint, the most ambitious and involved thing we've done on the show to date."
Invasion Season 3 starts streaming on August 22, 2025, with weekly episodes to follow. The Direct's interview with producer Simon Kinberg can be read and viewed in full below.
Simon Kinberg Explains Why Season 3 Starts With a Two-Year Time Jump
"I Wanted to Surprise People With the Way This Season Started."
- The Direct: "Season 3 starts immediately with a two-year time jump, instead of immediately addressing that cliffhanger. And so I'm just curious, in your own words, why that choice, and why did you feel that was the best jumping off point for this season?"
Simon Kinberg: Part of what I really like about TV versus movies is, I think, there's a little bit more possibility to be radical in the storytelling. And so I wanted to surprise people with the way this season started.
I was also interested in seeing our characters trying to go back to some sense of normalcy, like what they would be like in the post-war times, or post-invasion times, which otherwise we wouldn't have a real opportunity to show. And so I wanted to see them sort of settled or unsettled into society, in their lives again, and then shatter that before bringing them all together. So I just thought it would be a more interesting way to start the season.
And I also felt like it'd be interesting to use flashbacks to tell some of the story of what happened on that ship. And I didn't want the season to become too much about that mission from from Season 2 you know, I wanted to have mystery around it. So for all those reasons, I just thought it'd be interesting to see a post-invasion world in the middle of an alien invasion show.
Season 3 Will Finally Introduce Audiences to the Sentient Apex Aliens
The Human Race Is In Trouble Now.
- The Direct: "It's an alien show. So it should come as no surprise that people love aliens. What can you tease when it comes to Season 3 about how the alien threat and their presence in the show will feature and also evolve through this new season?"
Simon Kinberg: There's a huge evolution this season. It's the first time that we show what we call the Apex aliens, who are really the sentient aliens behind this invasion. And so not only do we learn more about them and learn more about why they're here, but we see this whole different style look of an alien that feels like it has intelligence and personality even.
And designing this Apex alien was definitely, from a visual standpoint, the most ambitious and involved thing we've done on the show to date. And we looked at everything from jellyfish to insects around the world to, obviously, the alien references from various movies and television shows. And wanted to create something that was scary and felt dangerous, but also was sort of beautiful and ethereal and even sort of mesmerizing or hypnotic. And so it took a lot of incredible artists. It took a lot of iterations. It took a lot of time, but I really love it.
The Hypthetical Long-Term Plans for Apple TV+'s Invasion Revealed by Simon Kinberg
Kinberg Imagines a Season 4, and Original Wanted Upwards of a Season 5
- The Direct: "Now that you have completed Season 3, what are the long-term plans for the show? How far do you see this story going, hypothetically?"
Simon Kinberg: Well, hypothetically, I don't know, because when I started the series, I imagined it would be four seasons, maybe five, and I had and have some sense of where it could go in that amount of time. But the nice thing about working in a serialized form is that I get surprised a lot.
Like I never would have imagined two seasons ago that would make a two-year jump. I probably wouldn't have, like, when I started the series, I thought we'd do one year, one season of all the different characters separate, and then the second season they would come together. But it felt like there was still more ground to cover in the second season. So there are always surprises when you're working, at least for me...
And I'm still learning this medium, you know, I've spent most of my career, but two decades plus, in features, with a little bit of television, but really primarily features. So I'm still learning how to tell TV stories. But I did imagine, and do imagine, at least a Season 4, and, obviously, that's not up to me.
The entire interview can be seen below:
Another Apple TV+ series, Smoke, wrapped up its first season, which included a massive twist in its penultimate episode.
