The Umbrella Academy was a breakout hit for Netflix, pulling in viewers and generating
buzz on its debut in early 2019.
It's no surprise that the show is returning for a second season, especially considering
the cliffhanger that closed the first.
But what can we expect when the Academy comes back?
Right now, there's no official release date for the second season of The Umbrella Academy,
but we do know one is coming.
When can we expect it?
Well, we have a theory.
In January 2018, comic creators Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá shared a picture from the
first day of production.
The show itself premiered just over a year later, in February 2019.
Season 2 got underway in June 2019.
If we take the first season as a model, that means we can hopefully expect season two somewhere
in the second half of 2020.
“I don't know, do you have a better idea?"
Obviously, it's not a perfect estimate.
We'll have an update when we get an official word, but fans can probably pencil in "late
2020" until further notice.
All of Reginald Hargreeves' children will be back for the second season, played by the
same actors.
The official Twitter account for The Umbrella Academy shared a video on June 15th, 2019,
showing the first script reading for the second season.
We knew that the entire principal cast was returning for the second season of Umbrella
Academy, but we've been in the dark as to what newbies might be coming aboard.
No longer in September, Netflix announced the three new cast members that we will see
in the show's second season: Yusuf Gatewood, Marin Ireland, and Ritu Arya.
Gatewood was recently seen as Famine, one of the four horsemen, in Amazon Prime's Good
Omens adaptation.
In Umbrella Academy, he will play Raymond, who Netflix describes as "a charismatic born
leader."
If you remember Famine's smooth talking from Good Omens, that sounds perfectly suited for
Gatewood.
Ireland, who will play Sissy, has dozens of credits to her name, but Sneaky Pete is the
one most likely to ring some bells.
Arya will play Lila, described in a press release as "a chameleon, who can be as brilliant
or insane as the situation requires."
She has appeared in several BBC shows, as well as the AMC series Humans.
Interestingly, none of these characters have appeared in the Umbrella Academy comics at
least, not yet.
Even with these announcements, we're still in the dark about where season 2's story is
headed.
We also don't know which other major players from the first season might be back.
Time-traveling assassins Cha-Cha and Hazel had significant roles in the first season,
as did Reginald Hargreeves, Agnes, and The Handler.
We could very well see some of them again, but due to the events of the finale, none
of these characters would be absolutely essential in carrying the second season's plot forward.
"I'm done with all this madness; time to start over."
The end of The Umbrella Academy's first season saw most of our siblings joining together
to try to stop their sister, Vanya, in her full, badass "White Violin" persona, from
bringing about the apocalypse.
They... did not succeed, with their efforts to stop Vanya inadvertently sending a wave
of energy towards the moon.
Pieces of the moon began to rain down, destroying the world just as the siblings jumped back
in time.
This ending differs a bit from the first volume of the comic, but it followed the same basic
path.
It seems likely that season two will at least draw inspiration from the second volume of
the comic, "Dallas."
This story deals with the Academy trying to assassinate JFK in order to prevent the apocalypse…
somehow.
Considering they were unable to stop the world from ending at the end of the first season,
traveling back in time and giving it another go seems like a fairly solid plan.
However, the story going forward may deviate from the comics the first episode of the second
season is titled "Right Back Where We Started."
So while it seems a given that the siblings are going back to the past, when it comes
to where exactly, we'll have to wait and see.
The Umbrella Academy's first season was a huge hit for Netflix.
As long as it keeps people tuned to the streaming platform, Netflix will probably find a way
to keep financing the show and there's a lot of comic material to keep them going.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Gerard Way and showrunner Steve Blackman talked
about the planned story.
Way said that he has eight volumes of comic stories planned, and that Blackman has an
outline of major plot points.
However, the first season of the show drew elements from both the first and second volumes,
so a "one volume equals one season" formula doesn't necessarily work here.
The publication schedule of the Umbrella Academy comics has been a bit all over the place.
The first issue was released in 2007, with the first two volumes, "Apocalypse Suite"
and "Dallas," collected in their entirety by the end of 2008.
The third and, to date, final collected Umbrella Academy story is "Hotel Oblivion."
Despite its announcement immediately after the conclusion of Dallas, Hotel Oblivion didn't
begin publication until 2018.
So, why the long delay?
"The world is changing — has changed."
Comic creator Gerard Way is also a musician, best known for his work with My Chemical Romance.
Though the band broke up in 2013, he has remained busy with solo work, and he's also written
numerous other comic book projects.
But that doesn't mean he's abandoned The Umbrella Academy story.
Way told The Hollywood Reporter that he is planning on eight volumes, and he hopes that
the comics can stay ahead of the show.
Speaking to Radio Times, Way said that the overall goal is, basically, to not fall into
the trap that hit Game of Thrones.
As he put it,
"The goal for us is to stay ahead of the show and since we're on series three [of the comics],
we are now ahead of the show."
While we wait for a second season of the show, we can likely expect to start hearing news
about the fourth volume of the books.
According to Way,
“The idea with the comic is to go right from series three, take a three-to-four-month
break, then go right into series four.
[...] There is story there and it’s all planned out.”
Obviously, the most logical prediction about where The Umbrella Academy's second season
is headed would be the JFK assassination.
However, there are plenty of other mysteries from the pages of the books that the show
could turn to.
The show touched on it, but a little more backstory about Sir Reginald would be nice
especially considering that, in the comics, we're told that he's an alien almost immediately.
The last episode of the first season gave some hints towards this, but never really
addressed it.
Along those lines, that revelation would also raise another obvious question: what about
all the other mystery children?
There are supposedly 42 of them, and Reginald enlisted seven to begin his Academy.
Season 2 could certainly catch up with some of those other kids.
The other looming possibility is the Hotel Oblivion and, specifically, the character
of John Perseus.
The new season will need a good villain, and Perseus seems a likely candidate, especially
if he works more in the background of the second season before becoming an even bigger
threat in season 3.
The Umbrella Academy has dealt with other villains, but Perseus seems like the best
bet for television.
So while the comics can give us hints about where the story of the show is going, the
only way we'll know for sure what happens is to wait and watch season two unfold.
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