The Umbrella Academy season 2 introduced the Sparrow Academy, a team created by Reginald Hargreeves instead of the Umbrella crew, but this might not be the only alternate timeline team, and Reginald could be working on something bigger. Based on the comic book series created by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, The Umbrella Academy debuted on Netflix in February 2019 and was an instant hit with critics and viewers, and a couple of weeks later, it was renewed for a second season. The new batch of episodes was released in July 2020, and it dropped a big surprise that will change the future of the series.
The Umbrella Academy follows the Hargreeves, seven adopted siblings who along with other 36 babies were born on the same day, at the same time, and to women who weren’t pregnant when the day began. Not long after, eccentric scientist and billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves set out to adopt as many of those kids as he could but only got seven, who he trained as they began to develop superpowers and formed the team named “The Umbrella Academy”. However, Reginald wasn’t the best father, and the kids began to go on their own ways, reuniting years later for Reginald’s funeral and to stop the apocalypse, which turned out to be triggered by their supposedly powerless sister, Vanya (Elliot Page).
As they couldn’t stop the end of the world, the Hargreeves had to jump to another place and point in time, and they ended up in Dallas, Texas, but scattered between 1960 and 1963. The Umbrella Academy season 2 caught up with the Hargreeves as they reunited in 1963 and stopped a new apocalypse along with other unexpected threats, and in the process, they created new timelines. As a result of their actions in the 1960s, when they returned to 2019 they found out that their team doesn’t exist, and instead Reginald recruited other babies and formed the Sparrow Academy. Although it hasn’t been confirmed, it’s assumed that Reginald chose different children as he met the Umbrella members in 1963 and knew what happened in their timeline, but a fan theory suggests a different team is part of a much bigger plan, and the Umbrella and Sparrow academies are not the only teams in this multiverse.
The Umbrella Academy’s Multiple Timelines Explained
The Umbrella Academy team has been creating different timelines since season 1, and not all have been on purpose. The first branch happened in episodes 6 and 7 in season 1, appropriately titled “The Day That Wasn’t” and “The Day That Was”, where Five (Aidan Gallagher) stole a briefcase from The Commission towards the end of episode 6 and landed at the beginning of the episode, thus creating a new timeline where Luther (Tom Hopper) and Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) didn’t come clean about their feelings, Vanya didn’t find out the truth about Leonard, and Klaus (Robert Sheehan) didn’t summon Dave. By jumping back to his time after spending decades in a post-apocalyptic future, Five created another timeline, which is the main one seen through the first season, and then another one appeared when the Hargreeves jumped to the 1960s – and that’s without counting Five landing in Dallas during the new apocalypse only to be taken a few days back by Hazel (Cameron Britton).
The Hargreeves’ actions in the 1960s changed many events from the future, most notably Grace’s presence in Reginald’s life and the Umbrella Academy team in general, as the siblings met Reginald in 1963 and didn’t leave a good impression. Towards the end of the season, Five intentionally created another timeline as he and the rest were killed by The Handler (Kate Walsh), and all he had to do was go back in time a couple of minutes. Last but not least, is the new 2019 timeline, which the Hargreeves believed would be just like the one they left behind, but they were welcomed with a huge surprise. First off, the apocalypse that Vanya triggered never happened, and the team found out that Reginald was still alive (as he killed himself in their main timeline), but they also learned that their team doesn’t exist in this timeline, and Reginald created the Sparrow Academy with other kids, including Ben (Justin Min). The Umbrella Academy, then, currently has multiple timelines where events have occurred differently and, in some cases, the apocalypse never happened, and so they make way for a variety of possibilities.
Theory: Reginald Is Testing Different Teams in Different Timelines
The Umbrella Academy have created different timelines thanks to Five and his time-travel abilities (and also their bad decisions), but Reginald might have been working on creating alternate timelines as well. Season 2 revealed that Reginald is an alien, though what exactly he can do remains unknown, but there was an interesting Easter egg related to the comics that can be found at Reginald’s office, among all his notes and projects: the televator. In the source material, the televator is one of Reginald’s creations and it allows users to travel through time and space, which came in handy in the comic books when Five wasn’t around. Although the televator hasn’t made an appearance in the TV show (and it’s unclear if it will), Reginald was already working on it in the 1960s, so it’s quite possible that he started using it not long after, thus creating different timelines and with a very specific purpose.
A fan theory by Twitter user DIEGOSHORROR suggests Reginald has created these different timelines to test different teams and see which one works best. With 43 (supposedly) superpowered children around the world, Reginald would surely be interested in seeing what their powers are and how he can use them in his favor, but as methodic as he is, he would need to test them in groups. Reginald could be using the televator to travel back in time and form a new team with different kids, thus creating new timelines, and meaning that the Umbrella and Sparrow academies are not the only teams Reginald has created across different timelines – and with each one facing different threats (and, perhaps, apocalypses too as Reginald could also be responsible of them), he’s making sure he tests the skills of each team and their responses, thus coming up with the perfect team at some point.
What This Means For The Umbrella And Sparrow Academies
If Reginald has been testing different teams across different timelines, the arrival of the Umbrella Academy to the timeline of the Sparrow team will make way for a lot of conflict between these two, as Reginald surely wouldn’t tell them what he has been doing, especially as having them fight each other would add to his experiment. The Sparrow Academy, then, would be the main enemies of the Umbrella members without them being an actual threat to them, and would further add to Reginald’s cold and selfish personality, as he doesn’t really care about the kids. The two teams would eventually be forced to join forces against whatever threat they are facing, adding even more to Reginald’s experiment.
This would also make it possible for the Umbrella Academy to meet other teams in other timelines, thus answering some of the many questions the audience has about the 43 children and what their powers could be. Reginald testing different team combinations across different timelines created by him with the help of the televator certainly suits the character and adds even more problems to the original Umbrella Academy team, while also expanding on the mythology of these characters beyond what the comic books have done so far.