The Umbrella Academy has been renewed for a fourth and final season. Netflix confirmed via Twitter that the entire Hargreeves family will return for the “goodbye season.” The Umbrella Academy series creator and showrunner Steve Blackman will oversee executive production duties, before heading onto other projects for Netflix. In a statement to Variety, Blackman stated that the fourth season of The Umbrella Academy will serve as a “fitting end” to the Hargreaves siblings’ arc, in a whole new timeline.
“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,” showrunner Blackman told Variety. “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.”
The news comes in the wake of Blackman extending his creative partnership with Netflix. He will adapt a live-action series based on PlayStation’s critically-acclaimed Horizon Zero Dawn game and an original concept called Orbital (not to be confused with the Gadgets 360 podcast of the same name). The Umbrella Academy season 3 ended with our heroes clashing against the Sparrows, after which, they entered a brand-new timeline, losing all their superpowers. Adding to that, siblings Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) and Sloane (Genesis Rodriguez) have separated.
In a prepared statement, creator Blackman addressed these pointers. “This new timeline has been dictated by Hargreeves, who reprogrammed the Universe at the end of the season 3 finale. But because of Allison’s actions, he didn’t get to finish what he started before Allison pressed the reset button,” it reads. Loss of powers is not the only oddity or challenge in the upcoming The Umbrella Academy season 4, as fans can expect to see new enemies rising to the occasion. “How do they manage without their powers? Is there even a way to get them back? The stakes have never been greater,” Blackman added.
The Umbrella Academy season 3 finale, “Oblivion”, had a post-credit scene, where we see a version of Ben Hargreeves (Justin H. Min) riding a Korean subway. As the train clicks along, he looks up from his book and smiles to himself. At the time, fans were confused as to what version or timeline this Ben belonged to. In the statement to Netflix, Blackman confirmed that it was the disciplined Sparrow Ben.
“The question you should really be asking yourself is what the f–k is he doing on a Korean subway train reading a book about pottery? Odd, right?” Blackman said. “Everything we see has meaning. And this moment is no exception. Ben has a reason to be there… but you’ll have to wait until season 4 to understand why.”
The Umbrella Academy’s fourth and final season will bring back the wildly dysfunctional superhero family. The ensemble cast includes Elliot Page as Victor Hargreeves, Tom Hopper as Luther Hargreeves, David Castañeda as Diego Hargreeves, Robert Sheehan as Klaus Hargreeves, Aidan Gallagher as Number Five, Ritu Arya as Lila Pitts, and Colm Feore as Sir Reginal Hargreeves.
Currently, there is no release window or episode count for The Umbrella Academy season 4. The Umbrella Academy seasons 1 to 3 are now streaming exclusively on Netflix.