The Umbrella Academy season 3 is almost upon us – it starts on Netflix Wednesday, June 22 – and the cast and creator have been talking about the combustible mix of the original, dysfunctional superhero academy (Umbrellas) and their alter egos (Sparrows).
It’s not going to be happy families. In fact, the sibling squabbles will be the biggest cause of conflict in the much-anticipated new season.
The Umbrella Academy showrunner Jeff F King told Netflix Tudum: “For us, the thing that ratchets up the tension is the family drama. If the Sparrow Academy are great superheroes who never got a chance to be a real family. Our Umbrella Academy are terrible superheroes, but they’ve always been a great, strong family.”
Sparrow Academy were introduced in the season 2 finale when viewers learned the Hargreeves’ adoptive father, Sir Reginald (Colm Feore), raised the Sparrows instead of the Brellies after meeting his children in the 1960s. The seven children born on the same day as the Umbrellas were adopted by Sir Reginald following a change in the timeline caused by the Umbrellas.
So, as well as the chaotic Umbrella originals, we now have their mirror-image misfits.
King teases a scene in season 3 that sums up their relationships. He says it involves a brutal fight between two Umbrella Academy members (“It’s a real throwdown and a real blowout”) and it alarms their siblings, while the Sparrows barely bat an eyelid.
The season 3 villain has been teased in the trailer as the mysterious ‘kugelblitz’, brought forth by the time paradox, but that is not their biggest anxiety, King warns.
“The kugelblitz is our biggest danger,” he said. “I think the show’s biggest foe this season is when our characters don’t trust their siblings, don’t communicate with them, and when they’re not upfront and honest with people – maybe for the best of intentions.”
How that is going to manifest in season 3 of the popular show based on the hit comic by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá is top secret, but some things are certain – the action will be relentless and eye-boggling, the humour will be eccentric and unique and Elliott (formerly Ellen) Page will lead one of the small screen’s most appealing casts in a variety of entertaining escapades.
