The Umbrella Academy is an adaptation of the comic book series by Gerard Way. He used to be the lead singer of My Chemical Romance, for those who are interested.
The premise of the show is relatively simple. On a specific day in March 1989, 43 babies, around the world, were inexplicably born to a set of unconnected women.
The twist is that none of the mothers were actually pregnant on the day they gave birth.
A rather eccentric billionaire, Sir Reginald Hargreeves, decides to go around the world and buy them up. He believes they have superpowers and after much cash has exchanged hands, he ends up with seven of them.
Numbering them one to seven, as they grow older, and through his training, their powers manifest. At least for six of them.
Number seven, Vanya, (played by Elliot Page) has been deemed ordinary. As a result, she is pretty much excluded from the group. The remaining six are then named The Umbrella Academy.
Fast forward to modern day and Hargreeves has died. Only five of the original seven are still around. Number 6 died and Number 5 upped and disappeared 16 years ago and was never seen again.
But, as the siblings gather in the vast mansion they call home, Number 5 appears through a time warp of sorts.
The twist is that he has been living in the future for more than 30 years but returns as his 13-year-old self. And he knows that the world is going to end in eight days.
The Umbrella Academy must now put their various differences aside and work together to stop a global apocalypse. Simple right? Not quite so.
They really don't like each other very much. They loathed their father. And all of them are seriously messed up in different ways. Their powers, it turns out, has ruined all of them in one way or another.
Is The Umbrella Academy Worth Watching?
Through the 10 episodes of season 1, we do genuinely get a much deeper look at each of their lives. The plot of the show is multi-layered and each plays their own part in the overall dysfunction of the family.
Throw in an AI mother, a talking, yet very real, guardian chimp and time travelling assassins and what you get is a very fast paced, action show.
But what The Umbrella Academy does very well is create excellent characters. Each and every one of them is engaging and relatable on some level. This is where the show differs from the likes of DC Titans (they're a bit shallow by comparison).
My personal favourite is Klaus, a flamboyant drug addict with the ability to communicate with the dead. Played by Robert Sheehan he, along with Aidan Gallagher, who plays Number 5, are superb. Plus the soundtrack is AMAZING. Seriously, the range of music is incredible!
I enjoyed it. It is engaging and interesting with enough twists and turns to keep you watching. Spoiler Alert: the end is an almighty cliff hanger that sets the show up nicely for season two.
The Umbrella Academy Season 2
As mentioned above, season one left us hanging on to the edge of our seats.
And as predicted not only was the show renewed but it dropped on Netflix on July 31st 2020 to huge viewer ratings.
We found our favourite siblings scattered through Dallas somewhere between 1960 and 1963.
Times are very, very different and Number Five, arrives there on November 25, 1963 before a nuclear disaster which could possibly be linked to president John F. Kennedy NOT being assassinated.
So the dilemma is do they change history and stop the murder of JFK or should they let history play out out and stop the nuclear bomb?
The Hargreeves siblings have ten days to save the world and hopefully return home. However, not all want to uproot their lives.
Allison Hargreeves is actually happy with her life with her new husband, Klaus Hargreeves is running his own cult (by using Diego Hargreeves as a spiritual guide) and Luther is a bodyguard. Vanya has amnesia and doesn't even know who any of them are!
So for some of them, the new timeline is a good place to be so can Number 5 convince them to give it all up and help him?
The Umbrella Academy Season 3
This is where the show comes almost full circle. From their father's death in season 1, and the timeline jump in season 2, the dysfunctional family have come back to the Hargreeves mansion.
But now there's a brand new problem when the umbrella academy return home. There's a new timeline, one where they never existed.
Instead they have been replaced by the Sparrow Academy, a new set of estranged siblings, and their father is still alive.
The third season sees the sparrows immediately clash with the six surviving members of the original academy as they navigate challenges, losses, and surprises of their own.
They must also deal with an unidentified destructive entity wreaking havoc in the Universe, which they probably caused. So 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?
The Umbrella Academy Season 3 Release Date
The good news is that Netflix have confirmed the release date for for the third season of The Umbrella Academy.
It will drop on the streaming platform on June 22nd, 2022.
Exactly like both season 1 and season 2, season 3 will also have ten episodes.
Cast of The Umbrella Academy
This show has been a mega hit for Netflix. In April 2019, Netflix announced that the series had been streamed by over 45 million viewers on its service within its first month of release.
By September 2020, Netflix revealed that during the second season first week, the show was the most watched television series show on Netflix, confirming that 3 billion minutes of the show's two seasons were viewed.
They revealed that the show's second season was streamed by over 43 million viewers in its first 28 days.
Not only is the whole concept for the show incredible, with amazing special effects, but the cast are impeccable.
So who are the brilliant actors who make the main characters of The Umbrella Academy so watchable?
Elliot Page as Vanya Hargreeves / Number Seven, a quiet violinist who is somewhat alienated from his siblings as he has no apparent supernatural abilities. In reality, he can convert sound waves into physical force.
Tom Hopper (Love in the Villa) as Luther Hargreeves / Number One, an astronaut with super strength. He lived on the Moon for four years as a mission from his father.
David Castañeda as Diego Hargreeves / Number Two, a troublemaker with the telekinetic ability to curve the trajectory of anything, including knives and bullets.
Emmy Raver-Lampman as Allison Hargreeves / Number Three, a celebrity with the ability to control minds and bend reality with the phrase “I heard a rumor…”.
Robert Sheehan as Klaus Hargreeves / Number Four, a flamboyant drug and alcohol addict with the ability to communicate with the dead.
Aidan Gallagher as Five Hargreeves / Number Five, a boy with the ability to jump through space and time. He was recruited into The Commission, a secretive agency that keeps tabs on the established timeline of the world, finding and eliminating those who would threaten it.
Justin H. Min as Ben Hargreeves / Number Six, who can summon tentacled horrors from his body. Ben is deceased, but appears regularly to Klaus and helps him occasionally.
Cameron Britton as Hazel, Cha-Cha's partner, a fellow assassin disillusioned with his life as an agent, who plans to leave the commission after falling for doughnut store-owner, Agnes.
Mary J. Blige as Cha-Cha a Commission agent partnered with Hazel, she is the more sociopathic and ruthless of the two assassins.
Adam Godley as Pogo, Reginald's closest assistant, and an intelligent chimpanzee.
Colm Feore as Sir Reginald Hargreeves, the Umbrella Academy's adoptive father and a billionaire industrialist who died in 2019, leading to the reunion of his children.
Kate Walsh as The Handler, the head of the Commission and Five's former boss.
Ritu Arya as Lila Pitts, Diego's love interest and The Handler's adopted daughter who is revealed to be one of the super-powered children born on the same day.
John Magaro as Leonard Peabody / Harold Jenkins, Vanya's love interest in season 1. Leonard takes Vanya into the woods to test her powers and its here that Vanya begins to understand the mystery surrounding her abilities.
Who Are The Sparrow Academy?
As we move into season 3 we are introduced to a whole new set of Hargreeves siblings in the form of The Sparrow Academy. But who are they?
Justin Cornwell as Marcus Hargreeves / Sparrow number one
Justin H. Min as Ben Hargreeves / Sparrow number two
Britne Oldford as Fei Hargreeves / Sparrow number three
Jake Epstein as Alphonso Hargreeves / Sparrow number four
Genesis Rodriguez as Sloane Hargreeves / Sparrow number five
Cazzie David as Jayme Hargreeves / Sparrow number six
