The final season of Netflix’s hit series The Umbrella Academy is drawing nearer, and now we finally have an official 2024 release date.
Fans of The Umbrella Academy are both anticipating and dreading the release of season 4. This is because, while we’re all desperate to know what happens after season 3 ended on a massive cliffhanger, Netflix has confirmed season 4 will be the show’s last season. Since it first hit the streaming platform in 2019, The Umbrella Academy has been one of Netflix’s most-watched shows and has received high praise from critics, as well as six Emmy nominations.
The show follows the superpowered Hargreeves siblings, who are reunited after the death of their father, Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore). The Hargreeves siblings are among a group of 43 superpowered individuals born simultaneously on October 1, 1989, to women who had not previously been pregnant. As children, the group formed a superhero team called the Umbrella Academy but went their separate ways and became estranged as adults. Their father’s death, though, reunites them and sets them off on a mission to stop an imminent apocalypse.
After changing the timeline in season 2, season 3 saw the Hargreeves in an alternate reality where Reginald adopted six different children (and an alternate version of one of the original Hargreeves, Ben (Justin H. Min)) to form the Sparrow Academy instead of the Umbrella Academy. However, Reginald has grand plans to reset and build the universe to his liking. In the season finale, he is revealed to have succeeded but created a world with some anomalies, such as the Hargreeves siblings losing their powers.
Fortunately, season 4 is in the works and hopefully holds some answers. Here’s everything we know about The Umbrella Academy season 4 so far.
Netflix drops The Umbrella Academy Season 4 release date and first look
On February 15, Netflix confirmed the release date for The Umbrella Academy season 4, and it’s not too far away! The season will arrive on Netflix on August 8, 2024.
Shortly before dropping the release date, Netflix also gave viewers their first look at the season. Of course, being part of a sizzle reel, it’s an incredibly brief look just to get us excited all over again. The short sequence, which features the Hargreeves siblings each raising a glass, comes just after the 30-second mark in the video below:
The Umbrella Academy season 4 episode count
Another significant detail the creators have revealed is the episode count of season 4. Seasons 1 to 3 were all ten episodes, so many thought it was safe to expect the same from season 4. However, it has been confirmed that The Umbrella Academy‘s final season will only be six episodes long. The showrunners have promised that the episodes will be great, but fans are a little salty they’re not getting their usual ten episodes.
Who stars in The Umbrella Academy season 4?
The Umbrella Academy season 4 will feature a mix of new and familiar faces. Viewers can, of course, expect to see all of the original Umbrella Academy members. This means Luther (Tom Hopper), Diego (David Castañeda), Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), Klaus (Robert Sheehan), Five (Aidan Gallagher), and Viktor (Elliot Page) will all be back for season 4. Additionally, the Sparrow Academy’s Ben (Min) will also return, as he followed the Umbrellas to the reset world, as did Diego’s partner, Lila (Rita Arya). Since he created and has influence over the reset world, Colm’s Reginald is also expected to return alongside his newly resurrected wife, Abigail Hargreeves (Lisa Repo-Martell).
There are also several characters whose returns are uncertain but possible. It is unknown if the Sparrows, besides Ben, will be returning in season 4. Most of them died in season 3, but given the reset, Marcus (Justin Cornwell), Fei (Britne Oldford), Alphonso (Jake Epstein), Sloane (Genesis Rodriguez), and Jayme (Cazzie David) could all potentially appear. There is especially likely more to Sloane’s story, given the fact she was with the Hargreeves when the reset happened but oddly disappeared during the transition. Previously deceased characters like Stanley (Javon Walton), Harlan (Callum Keith Rennie), and The Handler (Kate Walsh) could also all potentially come back, considering the flexibility of a new universe.
Lastly, Netflix recently announced some exciting new additions to the season 4 cast. Parks and Recreation and The Last of Us star Nick Offerman has joined the cast, along with Megan Mullally, who is best known for her co-starring role on Will & Grace. The real-life married couple will be playing spouses in the show, Drs. Gene and Jean Thibedeau, who Variety reports are “a married pair of community college professors from New Mexico who wear sensible footwear and suffer from the most extreme case of deja vu this timeline has ever seen.” Arrested Development’s David Cross has also joined the cast as Sy Grossman, a businessman seeking to reunite with his estranged daughter.
The Umbrella Academy season 4 plot
So far, the exact details of The Umbrella Academy‘s season 4 plot have not been revealed. However, based on the ending of season 3, we know a few things. For one, we know that the season, similar to season 3, will take place in an alternate reality. This one is particularly interesting because the Hargreeves have lost their powers and will have to experience living as regular people for a time. Each already seems to be on their path, too, with Diego leaving with Lila (who is expecting a child), Luther departing to find Sloane, and Allison being reunited with her husband and daughter, whom she met in the 1960s in season 2.
All of these story arcs are expected to be explored more, as will the story of Reginald and Abigail. We don’t really know a whole lot about them, aside from Reginald being an alien and Abigail previously having been deceased. Additionally, there are bound to be some unexpected twists and turns, monsters, and chaos in this unnatural reset world. Showrunner Steve Blackmen also teased that the season 3 post-credit scene will factor into season 4. The post-credit scene sees Sparrow Ben on a subway in Korea. We don’t know why on earth he’s on a subway in Korea, but apparently, it’s important!
Blackman also gave a rough outline of what to expect from season 4. He told Decider:
I do know what Season 4 is and we leave them in a pretty precarious place with the question that I hope the audience is asking themselves is: are they better off without their powers? Are they better off with them? Did Hargreeves give them the gift and say, look, you’ve hated the powers, it’s been the bane of your existence. Now you are free, you are, quote unquote, normal. Can they live like that and be normal? I have a way that they’ll get their powers back. But also, Hargreeves got something very special back himself—he got his wife. But that is also a very complicated story, given that they’re aliens, which we will also hopefully touch on next year. The world, if you look carefully, is slightly different as well, this timeline, a lot of Hargreeves Enterprises things around. So, there’s a lot of places to go in Season 4, and I’ve got a really good plan for it if we get another year.
(featured image: Netflix)
