The Umbrella Academy is back in action with season 3 now streaming on Netflix. The new season finds the Umbrellas in an alternate present in which Sir Reginald Hargreeves adopted seven different children and formed the Sparrow Academy, creating a time paradox that threatens to eat the world.
The ensemble cast for The Umbrella Academy includes Elliot Page, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher, Adam Godley, Colm Feore, Justin H. Min and Ritu Arya. The superhero series has scored critical acclaim for its unique tone and characters and after a near-two-year wait, the show has made its way back to Netflix.
In anticipation of the show's return, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with The Umbrella Academy showrunner Steve Blackman to discuss season 3, its bonkers opening dance number, surpassing the graphic novels and more.
Screen Rant: It's great to get to chat with you again for The Umbrella Academy, which continues to be an absolute blast, I'm on episode 8 right now of the new season. It's been a while since a show, right out the gate, made me go, "What the hell did I just see?" You already had a pretty high bar to clear coming off that season 2 cliffhanger. What was it like for you coming into this new season and working with the writers' room?
Steve Blackman: Well, we we wanted to have a big bang for the opening and we had this great moment of Diego's hallucination caused by Jamie, played by Cazzie David. It was a lot of fun for me to think, "What would Diego's hallucination be?" I thought it was just absurd that he'd come up with "Footloose," so we just had great fun talking about that and I thought, "Can the actors, would they be able to do that?"
To their credit, through COVID lockdown and quarantines, they learned that dance with a choreographer, they practiced it and they had no no dance doubles. That was all them, the whole time. I thought, once you get through that, which is just a hallucination, then you need the action, actually, of the real moment and we get into a big, big fistfight between superheroes.
And it's a pretty exciting one, to say the least. So obviously, there's the wealth of source material to draw from Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá's graphic novels, but what was it like really trying to find the next big threat for this season, from both your own mind as well as the material?
Steve Blackman: Well it's great being close with Gerard and Gabriel is obviously just a wonderful bonus, so I get to talk with Gerard — he's a very busy guy, he's on tour right now. But we find time to talk about where they plan to go with the graphic novel and Gerard and Gabriel have thought ahead a long way. I think they could have 10 or 12 more volumes coming out in the future, long after I think our show's gone. But we're very, very good with each other, where we've come to the conclusion that both the show and the comic can coexist. They're now symbiotic, sometimes we influence something, obviously I use all their source material as a springboard and an inspiration for what we do, but they don't always have to be the same.
But it's nice to know their roadmap, because I love the graphic novel fans and I want to continue to be true to some of the things. Some of it just doesn't translate either, because we can't afford it or it's just so over the top, I don't know how we would do it and a lot of the storytelling is nonlinear, so that's always a challenge. But you know, being good friends with them is just such an advantage and sitting down and talking creative.
Since you mention the two coexisting alongside each other, do you have an end in mind for the show? Or do you think that as long as the comics continue, it will continue?
Steve Blackman: I think the show would probably end before the graphic novels for a variety of reasons. One is the graphic novels take quite a bit of time, depending on Gerard and Gabriel's schedules, they're both very famous people in their own right, so they're working at a different pace. I'd love to have many, many more seasons of Umbrella Academy, but I do have an ending in my mind that I would like to end at eventually.
Obviously, we want Gerard's blessing, Gabriel's blessing, but I think they're going to go further than we ever will be able to, in terms of the TV show.
Well, I'm certainly hoping for more. Have had talks with Netflix and the producers at all about season 4 yet?
Steve Blackman: All I can say is I know what season 4 is, but we haven't been picked up yet. Our fingers are crossed, we hope to be picked up, but we'll have to wait and see like everybody else.
Have you seen some of the early reception from critics so far for this season?
Steve Blackman: Yes, we just started getting to see some [reviews] in the last day and, so far, it's been great. It's been very, very positive. I'm proud to say a lot of people feel it's our best season yet, so that makes myself, the writers and the other producers, we were all kind of grinning from ear to ear when we when we read that.
The Umbrella Academy Season 3 Synopsis
After putting a stop to 1963’s doomsday, the Umbrella Academy return home to the present, convinced they prevented the initial apocalypse and fixed this godforsaken timeline once and for all. But after a brief moment of celebration, they realize things aren’t exactly (okay, not at all) how they left them. Enter the Sparrow Academy. Smart, stylish, and about as warm as a sea of icebergs, the Sparrows immediately clash with the Umbrellas in a violent face-off that turns out to be the least of everyone’s concerns.
Navigating challenges, losses, and surprises of their own – and dealing with an unidentified destructive entity wreaking havoc in the Universe (something they may have caused) — now all they need to do is convince Dad’s new and possibly better family to help them put right what their arrival made wrong. Will they find a way back to their pre-apocalyptic lives? Or is this new world about to reveal more than just a hiccup in the timeline?
Check out our other interviews with The Umbrella Academy stars Robert Sheehan & Tom Hopper, Ritu Arya & Aidan Gallagher, and David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman & Justin H. Min.
The Umbrella Academy season 3 is currently streaming on Netflix.