Apple TV+'s 'Invasion' returns with new threats to mankind

Shamier Anderson knew the mountain he had to climb when he booked the role of Trevante Cole on the Apple TV+ series “Invasion.”

The character, a Navy SEAL with post-traumatic stress disorder, has many layers and Anderson put in the work to understand where he comes from.

“I’m a research fanatic when it comes to role-playing and being an actor,” Anderson says. “The first part of the process was working with Navy SEALs, being a part of that program, doing those workouts, getting into the mind of a SEAL. Through my research, I understood that PTSD was — and is — a big part of individuals who serve.”

According to Apple TV+, the series follows an alien invasion through different perspectives around the world.

In season three, those perspectives collide for the first time, as the series’ main characters are brought together to work as a team on a critical mission to infiltrate the alien mothership.

Just when it seems mankind has survived its greatest threat, two new enemies — one alien, one human — emerge to threaten all life on Earth.

The third season of “Invasion” stars returning cast members Golshifteh Farahani, Shioli Kutsuna, India Brown, Shane Zaza and Enver Gjokaj, and introduces new series regular Erika Alexander.

Anderson says the third season picks up immediately after the tense cliffhanger of season two. Cole and Caspar Morrow, played by Billy Barratt, have been sent on the most important mission in the history of the human race — a mission of destruction inside the mothership of the aliens that have been destroying life on Earth.

Anderson says in the opening moments of season three, it appears their mission is a success, as the mothership plummets from the sky and comes to a rest in the snowy landscape on Earth. But it has come at a terrible cost, taking the lives of Cole and Morrow with it. Two years later, the pair are martyrs and global heroes.

The survivors on Earth are returning to a new normal, and that is when Cole emerges from a portal in the Atlantic. He’s alive. But so are the aliens.

“Very quickly, we realize there are things happening that don’t completely add up and indicate that the aliens aren’t done,” says Simon Kinberg, “Invasion” showrunner. “Those aliens weren’t going back to the mothership to die — they were going back to the mothership to regroup for a far more aggressive and destructive attack than anything we’ve seen in previous seasons.”

The new season also introduces viewers to Infinitas, a cult working to help the invading aliens. Clark, played by Gjokaj, has been tracking the group.

Under the spell of the charismatic leader, Verna Mae Potter — portrayed by Alexander — they believe their loved ones are inside the mothership.

Alexander says she was attracted to the role because of the chance to play such a nuanced character.

“It was great to hear that Simon and the team had written a character that was more complex and fascinating than perhaps women often get a choice to do — certainly not a Black woman,” Alexander says. “She becomes this leader of sorts, and it comes out of the passion, the loss and the distress of having lost her sister, but perhaps it was always there, this person bubbling inside.”

Alexander feels protective of Verna Mae and sees her character as more than just a villain — a multifaceted woman who is motivated by all of the hardships she has endured.

“She has an alternate agenda and she’s willing to kill for it. She’s possessed by something larger than just the effects of Earth,” Alexander says. “She’s also a very powerful person who’s taken her pain and created something very destructive — but destructive to an end.”

Apple TV+'s 'Invasion' returns with new threats to mankind