Another funny season of The Umbrella Academy, which recently arrived on Netflix, features the erratic and mighty Hargreeves family. In Season 2, the group came dangerously close to avoiding the nuclear apocalypse of 1963.
However, when they returned to the present, a time where they appear to not exist, they forfeited all opportunities to permanently change their chronology. In Season 3, they came into a group of shrewd adversaries called the Sparrow Academy who were prepared to defeat the Umbrellas.
Most importantly, there are many surprises, turns, and revelations in this season. The crucial query, though, is what lies ahead for The Umbrella Academy. Things are drastically different now following the way season 3 ended, and fans are eager to see what will happen to their favourite characters. So, this is what we know about Season 4. Keep an eye out!
How did Season 3 End?
Let us quickly review what occurred at the ending of season 3 and where The Umbrella Academy and even The Sparrow Academy members ended up before moving on to our season 4 predictions.
The third season picks up immediately after the 2020 season 2 finale. In this season, Hargreeves decided to start the Sparrow Academy with a separate group of superpowered children after meeting the Umbrellas in 1963 when they came to ask him for help, and being promptly disappointed in them – so much so that he decided to go with a completely different set of children. This group consisted of six new members and an asshole Ben who was selected because he did not meet Ben when the rest of them came to him in 1963.
It turns out that Harlan, who retained his powers after the Umbrellas traveled into the future, is the most significant alteration to the chronology rather than the Sparrows. He was bullied and lonely as a child, and in 1989, when he knew the Umbrellas were about to be born, he accidentally killed all of their mothers, preventing the Umbrellas from ever being conceived. The group’s trip back in time to 2019 caused the Grandfather Paradox to come into play – messing up the timeline, which in turn caused the Kugelblitz which is a black hole that destroys the universe by swallowing up entire timelines.
As the Umbrellas try their best to stop the looming end of days, Sir Reginald Hargreeves manipulates the Umbrellas, along with Sloane, Sparrow Ben, and Lila into entering the mirror of the Hotel Oblivion during the season 3 apocalypse, killing both Luther and Klause in the process.
The hotel really turns out to be a device that the alien Sir Reginald (oh yes, he is an alien) can use to construct a new universe, and there we finally learn the mastermind’s motivation for establishing both superhero teams – the Umbrellas and the Sparrows.
The machine’s guardian, a multi-formed riff on the minotaur that guards the maze in Greek mythology, was always something he needed seven soldiers to beat and use as keys to power the machine, murdering them in the process. He always viewed his adoptive children as tools to be used as sacrifices, proving he is the series’ and the series’ worst villain.
Allison discovers she’s been duped by her father, Reginald Hargreeves once more as the machine actively sucks the life out of the Umbrellas and the Sparrows, and finally, she sides with her siblings. she kills Reginald to save everyone. However, Viktor, out of a sense of trust, allows her to hit the button to reset the universe because she still really wants to do so and poof.
Literally, the next thing we see is, Allison, who has a new husband called Ray and a child named Claire, as she arrives at her Los Angeles house to find them. We also see Lila and Sparrow Ben find and join the other Umbrellas, and they exit the hotel elevator into a courtyard, only to discover that all of their wounds have healed.
Even Luther is no longer half-ape, confirming that all of them have lost their powers – they are now just ordinary human beings like you and me. However, Luther’s joy is short-lived as he learns that Sloane has disappeared and that all of their abilities have been lost. The final scene depicts a vastly different New York in which Hargreeves dominates everything and reigns alongside his restored wife. It is regrettable that the world’s worst adoptive father got what he wanted in the end.
A post-credits scene delves deeper into this new world where all the Umbrellas and Sparrows have lost their powers. Nowadays, post-credits scenes are a given in both films and television programs. The Umbrella Academy too adopted the practice by including its first post-credits sequence at the conclusion of Season 3. And as we all know, a thousand fan theories can be started by a brief scene. This post-credits scene shows Ben reading in a Korean subway. Since Sparrow Ben was still with the gang when they debuted in the brand new timeline, Ben is not the Ben viewers got to know in Season 3. Instead, his demeanor and looks are exactly like Umbrella Number 6 Ben, which raised curiosity among fans.
Predictions – What we think will happen in Season 4
With the third season of The Umbrella Academy coming to an end, the program is now in completely new terrain. In addition to the Hargreeves family being adrift in the unknown once more while attempting to navigate a somewhat new reality without their powers, the plot is also without a clear direction for the first time. Why is that so?
Well, while the past three seasons of The Umbrella Academy closely matched one of the first three volumes of the comic series by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, season four has no equivalent. Thus, if The Umbrella Academy season 4 materializes, it will have to follow its own course.
But that should all be fine, as per Umbrella Academy showrunner Steve Blackman. He recently revealed to Den of Geek that he and Gerard had frequently discussed their future plans ever since he joined the show five years ago and first met him. Blackman stated that he has a pretty solid notion of what he is going to do for the fourth season after they exchanged some ideas.
Things start to become intriguing here. The Umbrella Academy season 3 ends on a much lesser degree of a cliffhanger than the first two seasons, but it still leaves viewers with a lot of unanswered concerns. Is Reginald Hargreeves’ strategy finished? Will The members of the Umbrella Academy be able to adjust to their new surroundings? Blackman claims that one query stands out above all others.
Superpowers are a must for superheroes, thus that will undoubtedly be a major, if not the primary difficulty for our Umbrellas in the next season. Blackman himself explains that the season will have to do with what happens when they lose all their powers and how to regain them. I mean, if you look at it, all these heroes have ever known is a life that revolves around their powers, right since they were born.
Thus, this is highly likely to be a major focus of the show. Therefore, we can say with a fair amount of surety that some, if not all of the Umbrellas will get back their powers because of how important their powers are to them. Although, at the end of the third season, some of them actually feel happy that they no longer have to bear the burden that comes with their powers.
In light of this, we may anticipate that The Umbrella Academy season 4 will focus more intently than ever on its namesake heroes. The world-ending storylines have been entertaining, but it’s time to learn more about the Hargreeves family and what intrinsically motivates them. Lila’s response to Diego’s inquiry on what they should do next, “Live our lives?” with a big and rather heavy question mark, as if it were a more challenging question to answer than facing any Kugelblitz-induced disaster, occurs near the very end of the season. According to Blackman, he wants the fourth season to feel distinct from the first three, while still being just as wild.
Now we come to the theories. The Season 3 finale gives fans hope that there may be more to the story. It’s possible that the Umbrellas’ defeat at the hands of the catastrophic Kugelblitz and their cunning father Reginald Hargreeves was for the best. Since they all came together, all the siblings have done is launch (and end) apocalypses, so it’s time for them to take a break. But if a fourth season does happen, the post-credits sequence guarantees that there will be other problems to solve.
Let us talk about Reginald Hargreeves first. At the end of the third season, he has everything he could ever want – his wife and all the power in the world. Reginald Hargreeves was one of The Umbrella Academy’s most significant characters even though he passed away just before the series even started. The third season shows what seems to be the gloomy culmination of Reggie’s planning.
He is finally reunited with his long-lost love Abigail by driving his adopted “children” into Oblivion. Reginald has progressed significantly in the television adaptation throughout the course of the comic book series. Is there still potential for the character to grow? The answer, in Blackman’s opinion, is a resounding yes.
Blackman has stated explicitly that he already has a set idea of what route this gnarly character will take and believes that there are many more layers yet to be uncovered. In fact, the fact that Sir Reginald is actually an alien will apparently be further explored in season 4.
Another important query is, “Why would Reginald leave the kids in such a dreadful place?” It appears that this inquiry has been directed at showrunner Blackman himself. According to Blackman, he would contend that Reginald believes he might be leaving them in a favorable position. They have constantly been complaining about their identities and powers, and now he is telling them, “Look, you’re free. No longer possessing any powers, you can move on without any restrictions or baggage, enjoy your lives.” Whether Hargreeves helped them in good or bad ways depends on the interpretation of the audience.
Delving deeper, the season 3 finale’s primary setup is a confrontation between the Umbrellas and Reginald Hargreeves, who now appears to own every tower in New York and certainly possesses comparable political clout. It would be quite intriguing to watch what would happen if the group went up against their adoptive father openly now that he is at his strongest and has his lover by his side.
There are other featured instances that can be used to support further theories. One of them is that the only people that worked on the machine were Allison and Hargreeves, and it appears that both of them are happy in this new realm, living with their families. Allison still has the bloodied wrap around her arm, suggesting that she might still have her powers, in contrast to the other Umbrellas who are unharmed but have lost their abilities. It’s also unclear which side she will support in the Umbrellas v. Hargreeves case; if defeating their father means losing Ray and Claire once more, she might continue to support the opposition.
Having discussed Allison, here is some food for thought about some of the other Umbrellas. Considering that OG Ben appears in the new reality, there is also the significant question of how the post-credits version of Ben – kind, slicked back hair one, fits in.
In fact, Five speculated at the start of Season 3 that they had doppelgängers someplace, but that idea was dispelled when a grown-up Harlan said he unintentionally murdered all of their biological mothers before they were even born. Ben does have a double in this alternate world, or perhaps even universe, proving that The Umbrella Academy’s interpretation of the Marvel variations is coming to pass.
Given that this Ben is seated in a train that resembles the one in which his mother gave birth in the Season 3 premiere, it’s possible that Reginald never adopted this version of Ben. Another hypothesis, however, holds that Reginald adopted this Ben and that he lived to adulthood despite never dying. After serving as young superheroes, the majority of the Umbrellas eventually took their own paths in life, thus it’s possible that Ben returned to his hometown. This idea is also supported by the fact that Umbrella Ben’s hair is slicked back. On the other hand, Sparrow Ben’s hair is spiked up.
The fact that only Ben appears in the post-credits scene suggests that he’ll play a big part in the subsequent fourth season. Since his passing caused the family to fall apart, he is perhaps one of the most significant characters in the entire story. The Umbrellas must, however, talk about the “Jennifer event” that led to Ben’s death as the one thing that must result from this revelation. Variant Ben can shed light on everyone’s pressing concerns regarding his passing because the show has excessively stretched out the suspense around it. However, The Umbrella Academy may be saying anything honestly, with this brief tease, so when it comes to Ben, there seems to be a lot of wild assumptions, and we are here for it!
His participation raises the possibility that other departed characters from the show—Sloane comes to mind—may make an emotional cameo. Now, if any of you are interested in what might happen to Klaus in season 4, here is what we know. The Umbrella Academy season 3 will feature a difficult path for Klaus, according to recent predictions made by star Robert Sheehan.
The unexpected conclusion of the third season finale of Umbrella Academy might cause Klaus to revert to his destructive habits. According to Robert Sheehan, Klaus’s character arc in a prospective season 4 may involve him coping with the loss of his supernatural abilities.
If the show is revived, Sheehan told The Wrap that Klaus’s next obstacle would be trying to embrace himself without his abilities. Although Sheehan’s depiction of Klaus in The Umbrella Academy differs from how the character is depicted in the comic books, the character nonetheless managed to win over fans. Since Sheehan contributed so much to Klaus, it seems highly inevitable that Sheehan’s prediction for Umbrella Number 4 would come true if Netflix decides to continue the series.
Other unresolved issues that the new season could potentially focus on are Diego and Lila’s unborn child, the possibility that Five founded the Commission at some point in his life, and whether ousting Hargreeves entails simply beating him or altering the past/creating a new one. Or does the answer lie in simply this dimension’s annihilation? I mean, what would the series be without an impending apocalypse, after all? And when there is a problem, the Umbrella Academy always comes back together.
Will Netflix Greenlight Season 4?
Although Netflix hasn’t yet announced it, all indications point to The Umbrella Academy returning for another season. The eight-figure contract that Netflix awarded to the creator of the series, Steve Blackman in 2020 is the first hint. Of course, Blackman is free to use his creative muscles wherever he pleases on the streaming service. Nevertheless, it’s not implausible to suppose he would carry on the series by giving it a fourth season considering that the deal was granted based on the popularity of The Umbrella Academy.
According to the rumoured agreement, Blackman will continue to serve as The Umbrella Academy’s showrunner while also producing new material for Netflix, which is encouraging for the future of the programme. The first two seasons debuted in 2019 and 2020, respectively, and the third season will return in 2022. Season 4 may debut as early as 2023 if production resumes on schedule and Netflix promptly renews the programme.
Blackman obviously hopes there is one, as has already indicated. However, Netflix is now in charge. When it comes to deciding whether to renew or cancel its original shows, it might be difficult to determine where Netflix’s thinking is. Netflix is now a little more lenient with the cancellation scythe than it once was, content to let almost anything live as long or as little as its creators desired.
However, the good news for Umbrella fans is that the programme is still a massive success for Netflix. Over 45 million households watched the very first season of the show, according to Netflix’s own statistics. The Umbrella Academy season 2 was by far the most popular streaming series the week of its release, according to Nielsen. In fact, The Umbrella Academy Season 3 actually replaced Stranger Things season 4 and took the number 1 spot on Netflix’s Top 10 TV list.
Stranger things season 4 had been on top of the list for a month before The Umbrella Academy Dethroned it right after debuting its third season. It also has an 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the rating aggregator site and shining reviews by critics. This can only mean good things for the future. It might not be very long before we see the Umbrellas back in action!
As far as news on the cast is concerned, for a prospective Season 4, it’s definitely safe to presume that everyone will return. Prior to Season 3, the core cast earned significant salary hikes; they now earn more than $200,000 per episode. This implies that Tom Hopper’s character Luther, David Castaneda’s Diego, Emmy Raver-Allison, Lampman’s Robert Sheehan’s Klaus, Aidan Gallagher’s Number Five, Justin H. Min’s Ben, and Elliot Page’s Viktor are all likely to make a comeback in the speculative upcoming season.
Ritu Arya, who plays Lila, Yusuf Gatewood, who portrays Raymond Chestnut, and the adorable Coco Assad, who plays Claire are more cast members who are quite certainly going to return. Additionally, Colm Feore will have to come back to play the notorious Reginald Hargreeves, the Big Bad, and Liisa Repo-Martell will have to play Abigail Hargreeves, his companion and recently revived wife.
Other beloved cast members, including Sloane and Jordan’s Sloane Genesis Rodriguez, may make a comeback. Claire Robbins as Grace might also return, as the post-credit scene suggests that people who have passed away in earlier histories might come back. There is a possibility that the other members of the Sparrow Academy—Justin Cornwell, who played Sparrow 1 Marcus, Britne Oldford, who played Fei, Jake Epstein, who played Alphonso, and Cazzie David, who played Jayme in the third season—will also make an appearance if Sloane does indeed make a comeback.
Will Season 4 be the end of The Umbrella Academy?
Unfortunately for fans, it seems like season 4 might just be the last season of The Umbrella Academy. According to the original plans of the show’s creator, Steve Blackman, if The Umbrella Academy does return for Season 4, those episodes might be the last ones to be released.
He has said that he is unsure of how many seasons Netflix plans to air of the programme, although he proposed Season 4 to them and is familiar with its beginning, middle, and conclusion of the season 4 storyline. Blackman admitted to TVLine that, when he initially started the show, all he really had in his head were the first four seasons. Gerard Way, the creator of the comics that served as the inspiration for The Umbrella Academy, wants to and is going to write volumes and volumes of material, he continues. However, he has what he believes to be a conclusion for the TV show, even if the original material lasts for years.
He further added that Netflix could want more than just four seasons, but he also made it clear that he had a beautiful idea of how he believed the program should conclude and where they should be taking it. Irrespective of what happens, fans are waiting with bated breath for season 4 because season 3 has left all their favorite superheroes, without any superpowers. It also seems highly likely that Netflix with greenlight the fourth season soon based on the success of the third season alone. Do you guys have any fan theories or predictions about the fourth season? Let us know in the comments section below!