The Umbrella Academy season 4: what we know about the hit Netflix show’s return

The Umbrella Academy season 4 will be the popular Netflix show’s last installment – and we’re going to need plenty of umbrellas to keep the tears off our faces when it finally ends.

It’s been a rollercoaster ride for the Hargreeves family, but all good things must come to an end: Netflix‘s adaptation of Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá’s graphic novel series of the same name will meet its apocalyptic end later this year. Here’s hoping we get one more fun-filled dance number before the world’s best streaming service calls time on the superhero-centric series.

So, with The Umbrella Academy set to end soon, what do we know about this fourth and final season? Below, you’ll find more details on it, including its possible launch date, cast news, story threads that need addressing from The Umbrella Academy season 3, and more. Full spoilers follow for the show’s first three seasons, Brellies.

The Umbrella Academy season 4 release date: what we know

The Umbrella Academy season 4 doesn’t yet have a release date, but we know it’ll launch this year. Last October, Netflix confirmed The Umbrella Academy 4 would arrive in 2024, so we’re keeping our eyes peeled for an official release date announcement.

However, it might be a while before we get one. Taking to Instagram in early January, showrunner Steve Blackman revealed episodes were still being edited. This indicates a launch date is still a few months away.

When do we think The Umbrella Academy will return to our screens? The past two seasons debuted in mid-2020 and mid-2022 – July 31 and June 22, respectively, to be exact. If we had to guess, we’d suggest a similar release window for season 4, with a May or June 2024 launch. That would give Blackman and company 12 months – filming wrapped in May 2023 – to get the show’s final season ready to ship to the public, which is ample time.

The Umbrella Academy season 4 cast: confirmed and rumored

Major spoilers follow for The Umbrella Academy season 3.

Here’s The Umbrella Academy season 4’s confirmed cast so far:

• Elliot Page as Viktor Hargreeves
• Tom Hopper as Luther Hargreeves
• David Castañeda as Diego Hargreeves
• Emmy Raver-Lampman as Alison Hargreeves
• Robert Sheehan as Klaus Hargreeves
• Aidan Gallagher as Number Five
• Justin H. Min as Ben Hargreeves
• Colm Feore as Sir Reginald Hargreeves
• Ritu Arya as Lila Pitts
• Nick Offerman as Gene Thibedeau
• Megan Mullally as Jean Thibedeau
• David Cross as Sy Grossman

Apart from the final trio, the rest of The Umbrella Academy 4’s cast are returning from their appearances in seasons 1 through 3.

So what of the newcomers? As the tweet below revealed, Nick Offerman (The Last of Us, Parks and Recreation) will play someone called Doctor Gene Thibedeau, while Megan Mullally (Will & Grace, Parks and Recreation) is portraying their similarly science-based wife, aptly named Doctor Jean Thibedeau. Expect this duo to be the result of the time-traveling and/or multiversal shenanigans that the Hargreeves family has caused thus far. Lastly, David Cross (Arrested Development) will feature as Sy Grossman.

None of these characters appear in the source material, so we’re unsure how they’ll fit into the new season’s narrative. According to Netflix Tudum, though, the Thibedeaus are a pair of “mild-mannered Midwestern community college professors”. Meanwhile, Grossman is “an upstanding but shy business owner and family man” who is “desperate to reconnect with his estranged (and unnamed) daughter [and] he will stop at nothing to get her back.”

The Umbrella Academy season 4’s new cast reveals had us worried upon their unveiling, especially as the show diverges away from the story told in the graphic novels. But, if Blackman and company have valid reasons for their inclusion, we’ll try not to complain.

Interestingly, there’s been no word if, Ben aside, the other remaining member of The Sparrow Academy – that being Sloane Hargreeves (Genesis Rodriguez), who is also Luther’s wife – will return for season 4. We’ll dig into this mystery more in our plot section.

The Umbrella Academy season 4 story speculation

Netflix hasn’t provided details on The Umbrella Academy season 4’s plot yet, but there’s plenty to speculate on heading into the final season.

Before we dive into spoiler territory, the show’s cast has teased what we can expect from the final season. Speaking in a pre-recorded video that was released during Netflix Geeked Week 2023, they said season 4 will “hit the ground running” in the hit Netflix show’s “bittersweet” final entry.

As you’ll see in the Instagram posts above and below this text, we also know what season 4’s first and last episode titles are. We’ll dig into what ‘The Unbearable Tragedy of Getting What You Want’ and ‘End of the Beginning’ mean in our spoiler section. Speaking of which…

Full spoilers follow for The Umbrella Academy seasons 1 through 3, as well as potential season 4 spoilers. You have been warned.

The first big question we have relates to how the Hargreeves siblings will react to losing their powers. In the season 3 finale, Alison reset the universe using the Hotel Oblivion, which was a cover for Sir Reginald Hargreeves’ (yep, the group’s surrogate dad) attempt to resurrect his wife. This caused the septuplet to lose their abilities, brought Luther back from the dead (Reginald killed him in season 3 episode 9), and gave Five his right arm back (he lost it in the fight with the hotel’s Guardians).

With the siblings believing they’re finally free of their father and years of being forced to be superheroes, they collectively – though not without pushback from some of the group – decide to go their separate ways. Indeed, Luther heads off to search for Sloane, Allison reunites with her family, and so on.

However, it’s clear this ‘yay we have no powers’ honeymoon period won’t last. Indeed, as the aforementioned first episode title suggests, the siblings will soon realize being normal people isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. When they learn that Reginald and his revived wife Abigail are now lording it over this new-look universe – we see the pair looking down on everything they apparently own before season 3’s end credits rolled – we’re sure the group will want to get their abilities back and try and save the day (properly, this time!) again.

The other major problem – outside of losing their powers and finding out their indifferent but dangerous father is alive – facing the siblings will be preventing another apocalypse. This increasingly tiresome storytelling device has been used in all three seasons so far, so we should expect another world-ending event to feature in The Umbrella Academy‘s fourth season. We’d love it if the final season’s narrative wasn’t built around this trope, but it feels inevitable.

So, how will the gang get their abilities back? That’s where we think the Thibedeaus will come in. They’re scientists, after all, so we’d be amazed if the duo doesn’t concoct an experiment to try and imbue the Hargreeves children with superpowers again.

As for what Reginald will be up to, he’s always had a menacing tone about him, so expect this alien masquerading as a human to be a formidable foe for his surrogate kids to overcome. As Blackman teased to Netflix Tudum in August 2022: “This new timeline has been dictated by [Reginald], who reprogrammed the universe at the end of the season 3 finale. But, because of Allison’s actions, he didn’t get to finish what he started.”

In a separate chat with Netflix Tudum after season 3 aired, Blackman offered further insight into Reginald’s antagonistic machinations: “To the viewer, I think he is the villain. In every timeline, Reggie seems to have the ability to play puppet master to these kids. [And] if you follow the timeline of three seasons, he started his plan 100 years ago. He’s been waiting a very, very long time to bring his wife back from the dead.

“Reggie thinks he gave them a gift. He took away their power. He took away the thing they most complained about. Now, that may not be true, but if you jump into Reggie’s mind for a second, I think he says, ‘You guys got what you want. You don’t have to be burdened by this power anymore. You’re all normal again. You’re all just like everyone else. Have a good life’, which sets up a wonderful season 4.”

Reginald won’t be the only villain the Hargreeves family has to face. Blackman also told Tudum that “there are new enemies who want to see them wiped out of existence”, so it’ll be fascinating to see how they deal with these threats without their powers.

Moving away from their emotionally cold father, Ben Hargreeves – the other Sparrow Academy member who survived season 3’s events alongside Sloane – is spotted reading poetry in Korea in season 3’s post-credits scene. What’s the deal here? Blackman wouldn’t say, but did tease to Tudum: “As every good fan knows, no moment in the show exists in isolation. Everything we see has meaning. And this moment is no exception. Ben has a reason to be there”. Color us intrigued.

There are lots of other subplots we need resolutions for as well. The breakdown in Allison and Viktor’s relationship, Klaus facing up to the fact he’s now a mortal being, Five’s likely struggle at failing to stop another universe-ending event, Lila and Diego heading off to start their new family (Lila revealed she was pregnant in season 3), and confirmation about whether Sloane is alive or not in this new reality. Season 4, then, has numerous plot threads to resolve.

And that’s all before we get to the season 4 finale’s title, aka ‘End of the Beginning’. We’re not sure what this is hinting at but it could be that the Hargreeves children are successful in reverting the universe back to its original form, stopping whatever nefarious scheme Reginald and other villains have concocted, and starting their lives over properly for the first time. We’ll see if we’re correct in our assumptions when season 4 is finally released.

The Umbrella Academy season 4 trailer: is there one?

Not yet. Typically, Netflix releases teaser trailers for a show’s new season a couple of months before they air, so we shouldn’t expect to see any footage for The Umbrella Academy season 4 for a while yet. We’ll update this section once one is released.

The Umbrella Academy season 4: is it really the final entry?

Unfortunately, yes. As Blackman confirmed on social media, The Umbrella Academy season 4 will be the show’s last entry. In true Brellies fashion, then, we’ll need to prepare for a funeral-like event to say goodbye to the Hargreeves later this year.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in June 2022, Blackman revealed he’d always had a four-season series in mind, so we shouldn’t be surprised that the hit superhero show will end shortly. Still, it’s gutting that we’ll never see another epic Hargreeves dance-off once the fourth season is released. We’ll be making the most of its truncated six-episode run, then, when it’s eventually released.

Services Marketplace – Listings, Bookings & Reviews

Entertainment blogs & Forums