New year, new academy. Netflix dropped the character posters for the seven members of the Sparrow Academy, the alternate timeline counterparts to the original superhero team in the upcoming third season of The Umbrella Academy. The posters only show the top half of the characters’ faces, with the silhouettes of sparrows in flight casting shadow across all seven images.
The Sparrow Academy were first teased at the end of The Umbrella Academy season 2 after the Hargreeves saved the world from the apocalypse and returned to 2019 to discover a few surprises in this new timeline: namely, that Sir Reginald is still alive and is the founder of a different academy of different gifted children, the Sparrow Academy. But most shockingly, the Sparrow team includes one of the Umbrella’s own: Ben. The creators have teased that Sparrow Academy Ben is a very different person from the Umbrella Academy Ben, with show co-creator Steve Blackman calling him "more Machiavelllian" than his character in the original timeline. No word on major changes to any other Umbrella Academy characters.
Justin H. Min will return to play Ben, known as Sparrow #2. Alongside Min, five actors and one CGI cube were cast last year in the Sparrow Academy roles. They are: Justin Cornwell as Marcus/Sparrow #1, Britne Oldford as Fei/Sparrow #3, Jake Epstein as Alphonso/Sparrow #4, Genesis Rodriguez as Sloane/Sparrow #5, Cazzie David as Jayme/Sparrow #6 and “Dread-Inducing Psykronium Cube” will play Christopher/Sparrow #7. All seven Umbrella Academy character posters can be seen in Netflix's Twitter thread.
While The Umbrella Academy has been on hiatus since July 2020, fans of the series have been gobbling up little morsels dropped by Netflix and the creators about what’s to come. The third season of Umbrella Academy was announced more than a year ago. In June 2021, Blackman revealed the episode titles for the 10-episode season 3. In October, Netflix confirmed Hotel Oblivion, a mysterious location from the third volume of the comics, will be the setting for at least some of season 3.
Considering the first episode of season 3 is titled “Meet the Family,” the show will likely jump right into introducing the audience to the Sparrow Academy characters and setting up the dynamic between the Umbrella Academy team and their new…siblings? Half-siblings? What do you call your adopted father’s second family from an alternate timeline? No doubt we’ll figure out the exact terminology alongside the old team. Unfortunately, Netflix still has not confirmed season 3’s release date beyond a general “in 2022.” The release of these photos suggests season 3 is around the corner, but there is still no way to be sure without official word from the big, red N.
The Umbrella Academy season 3 hits Netflix in 2022.
Source: Netflix/Twitter