Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy is coming to an end with its upcoming season 4, and a recent update from the series’ showrunner is actually quite disappointing. After dealing with three apocalypses, doing their best to become a real team, and learning some dangerous truths about their adoptive father, Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore), the Umbrella Academy and the surviving members of the Sparrow Academy will be facing one final threat in the show’s final season, and the upcoming episodes have a lot of mysteries and questions to solve and answer.At the end of The Umbrella Academy season 3, and after not stopping the end of the world this time, the Umbrellas and Sparrows (along with the audience) learned that the true villain is none other than Reginald, who used them to power a machine to reset the timeline, almost killing them in the process. The Hargreeves are now in a timeline where Reginald is the most powerful man and they are now powerless, leaving them with more questions than they had before about themselves and Reginald. The Umbrella Academy season 4 will be the final chance to tie the biggest loose ends the series has left, but with a shorter episode count than before, this season is facing some challenges.
The Umbrella Academy Season 4 Deserves More Episodes For Its Final Run
The Umbrella Academy showrunner Steve Blackman revealed on his official Twitter account that the show’s final season will be shorter than the previous ones, with only six episodes instead of 10, though he assured the audience that they are “six amazing episodes”. Of course, this came as a surprise to fans of The Umbrella Academy, more so as it’s the final season and there’s a lot it’s supposed to cover, but Blackman reassured the audience that they “are going to love them”. Despite Blackman’s positive attitude about The Umbrella Academy season 4’s shorter episode count, truth is that the show’s final season deserves the 10 episodes the previous seasons got, and there are different reasons for it.
The Umbrella Academy season 3 ended on an even bigger cliffhanger than the previous seasons, as not only did Reginald create a timeline where he has a bit too much control, but the Hargreeves are also powerless now, Allison was given her desired reality with her daughter and her 1960s husband, and on top of that, Sloane was nowhere to be found at the end of season 3. The Umbrella Academy season 4 obviously has to solve all these mysteries, but the series has left various unanswered questions throughout its first seasons, so there’s a lot that season 4 has to cover and address in order to properly bring the series to an end. Among the biggest mysteries The Umbrella Academy season 4 can’t ignore is the fate of the other children (and if they also have superpowers or not), more about Reginald’s origins, what really happened to the original Ben, and how Five ended up being the founder of The Commission.
The Umbrella Academy S4's Reduced Episode Count Risks The Show's Formula
With many things to address and mysteries to solve, The Umbrella Academy season 4 having a smaller episode count is not only disappointing, but it also risks the show’s formula. Ten episodes have been enough for each season of The Umbrella Academy to develop the main conflict, establish the villain(s), and explore a couple of subplots, with most of these getting some sort of closure at the end or setting up more stuff for the following season. With four episodes less, The Umbrella Academy season 4 risks making a drastic change to the show’s pace in order to give closure to the biggest stories of the series, which can in turn make way for underdeveloped characters and rushed stories, giving a disappointing ending to the series.
The Umbrella Academy Can Still Have A Good Ending (Despite Fewer Episodes)
On the other hand, The Umbrella Academy’s changes in its final season can actually make for a good ending. A shorter episode count can force writers to focus more on what needs to be solved and addressed in season 4 rather than adding stuff that only serves to fill in spaces (and, ultimately, leave loose ends), thus throwing viewers right into the action. A more contained story might be best for The Umbrella Academy after three seasons that have branched out a bit too much at times, making way for more personal stories and deeper explorations of the Hargreeves and even Reginald himself. Surely, The Umbrella Academy season 4 has a lot to cover and solve, and as disappointing as it is to know that it will have fewer episodes, it can still be an exciting and satisfying conclusion to the Hargreeves’ story.