The Umbrella Academy renewed for a fourth and final season
"Family meeting, Brellies: We're going on a fourth and final adventure."
Words: Emily Maskell; pictures: Netflix
Netflix has announced today (25 August) that The Umbrella Academy has been renewed for a fourth season, which will be the show’s last.
The entire superpowered dysfunctional Hargreeves family is set to return for the series farewell, which the showrunner and creator promises to be a “fitting end”.
The Umbrella Academy has been renewed for a fourth and final season! ☂️🖤 pic.twitter.com/6DaZn81V5o
— Netflix (@netflix) August 25, 2022
“I’m so excited that the incredibly loyal fans of The Umbrella Academy will be able to experience the fitting end to the Hargreeves siblings’ journey we began five years ago,” creator and showrunner Steve Blackman said to The Hollywood Reporter.
Blackman added: “But before we get to that conclusion, we’ve got an amazing story ahead for season four, one that will have fans on the edge of their seats until the final minutes.”
Season three of Umbrella Academy saw the siblings enter an alternate reality and face off against The Sparrows, a mirrored seven-person team of super-powered individuals. Also in this most recent season was the incorporation of Page’s transition for his character, Viktor.
Speaking about rewriting season three to include Viktor’s trans identity in June, Blackman told ET that he didn’t want to “hang a lantern on it and make it the sob story of the season.”
Instead, he recalls: “We all agreed that we want it to be something that just happened and let the family react to it. That was the hard balance to find that.”
Blackman credits Page, GLAAD Vice President Nick Adams, and transgender author/journalist Thomas Page McBee for guiding him to explore “what it means to be trans, how it feels, and how to tell a story”.
View this post on Instagram
Speaking to Netflix’s TUDUM, Blackman confirmed (spoilers incoming!) that the fact these characters have been left in an alternative timeline without their powers is just one of the twists fans can look forward to.
The show’s season 4 cast set to reprise their roles includes Elliot Page, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher, Justin H. Min, Ritu Arya, and Colm Feore.
In the interview, Blackman also announces the development of two Netflix projects: a cinematic adaption of the hit PlayStation game Horizon Zero Dawn as well as a sci-fi limited series titled Orbital.
Blackman notes that on the surface the two new shows are very different from each other as well as The Umbrella Academy – “one takes place a thousand years in the future, in a world completely remade by massive machines. The other is set near present-day on a space station,” – however, as with all of his work, they are linked in an exploration of “outliers who struggle to find their place in a world of conformity and structure.”
As Blackman puts it: “All my stories strive to subvert expectation and find a new way of looking into the worlds we think we know.”
The Umbrella Academy season 4 does not yet have a release date. Seasons 1-3 are available to stream now.
The Attitude September/October issue is out now.
