The Umbrella Academy began with an apocalypse-thwarting story then headed back to the 1960s before dealing with the mother of apocalypses (Kugelblitz) in the third season. What’s left, especially when the Netflix series has now moved past the comic-book source material from Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá?
The Hargreeves siblings will now find themselves power-free after a little reset-button madness. Elliot Page’s Victor uttered the last (profane) word, and sure, the show could have ended there and made sense with everyone heading off into “normalcy” after living life as screwed-up super beings from a Bad Dad who spontaneously impregnated their mothers on the same day. Yet Netflix opted to bring back the cast and crew to properly tie up the beloved series. The show now sits in a very different place after the fam dispensed with the Sparrow Academy. In short, this is chaos, so let’s talk about what is to come.
Plot
Since the show has headed into Game of Thrones territory, so to speak (by going off book), we can cross fingers that nobody ends up flying atop a dragon while going mad. Actually, the group might be too mundane when we first see them, but expect that to change. I can only imagine how benevolent cult leader Klaus (Robert Sheehan) could fare as an ordinary dude, but showrunner Steve Blackman revealed that another sibling has adjusted quite well:
“Victor is probably the one sibling who is most comfortable in his skin in season 4,” Blackman says. “He’s doing better than any of the other siblings in terms of adjusting to his new life. He’s the most accepting of their new reality.”
Not only does that speak to the power of Victor’s former (destructive) abilities, but it also says a lot about how they took charge of their identity in the third season. The siblings will begin their final chapter apart, but they will come together again in “chaos” because they will (obviously) probably have to save the world again. As for whatever the hell Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) actually meant to do with the reset button, Blackman revealed that perhaps this did not go according to somebody’s plan:
“Fans may remember that at the end of season 3, Hargreeves wasn’t able to finish programming the Universe Machine, and Allison still pressed the button anyway. o we’re definitely in an altered version of our now. We’re back to the time period they’ve always wanted to get back to! At least they start in the right year, but we know that something isn’t right. My little teaser is clearly Hargreeves didn’t finish what he needed to do before Alison pressed the button, so that is going to have repercussions to their timeline.”
Before the action commences, however, expect to see some gloomy-ass moods. The first episode will be titled, “The Unbearable Tragedy of Getting What You Want.”
Netflix has provided a nebulous description, too:
Last season ended with a major twist: There’s a new timeline dictated by the family patriarch, Reginald (Colm Feore), and the siblings no longer have their powers. That’s not the only oddity in this timeline, where the stakes are higher than ever before — there are new enemies who want to see them wiped from existence, but how do they face them without their powers? And will the siblings ever get them back?
Cast
The fam is back, officially. That includes Elliot Page (Victor Hargreeves), Tom Hopper (Luther Hargreeves), Robert Sheehan (Klaus Hargreeves), Emmy Raver-Lampman (Allison Hargreeves), David Castañeda (Diego Hargreeves), Aidan Gallagher (Number Five), and Justin H. Min (Ben Hargreeves). Wildcard Ritu Arya (Lila Pitts) also returns as well as and Colm Feore (Reginald Hargreeeves).
We don’t yet know which characters surface as the newest rivals, but this season will also include David Cross (“as a man desperate to reconnect with his estranged daughter”), who recently told UPROXX that “it was a f*cking treat and an honor to be a part of that.” Additionally, a pair of college professors will be portrayed by Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally.
Release Date
August 8 will bring this saga to a close. Get ready to binge.
Trailer
No trailer exists yet, but here’s the cast revealing what they can without getting yanked away by a cane.