The Hargreeves siblings’ superheroing is not yet over.
Despite the explosive ending to the freshman run of The Umbrella Academy, Netflix has announced on Tuesday that it renewed the unique superhero series for a second season. The show’s Season 2 will consist of 10 episodes, matching its 10-episode Season 1.
Based on the Eisner Award-winning comics of the same name by Gerard Way, the first season of Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy takes place after the uncanny events of 1989, when 43 infants were strangely born on the same day to random, unrelated women who showed no signs of pregnancy prior to giving birth. Seven of these babies were adopted by a billionaire who created The Umbrella Academy and prepared them to save the world.
Following the news of their father’s passing, six surviving members of the academy reunite and must work together to solve a mystery surrounding his death. But due to their conflicting personalities and abilities, the estranged siblings begin to come apart as a threat of a global apocalypse looms.
Ellen Page (Vanya), Tom Hopper (Luther), David Castañeda (Diego), Emmy Raver-Lampman (Allison), Robert Sheehan (Klaus), Aidan Gallagher (Number Five), and Justin Min (Ben) are all set to reprise their roles in Season 2 as the adopted Hargreeves siblings.
Min’s Ben passed away before the show began but maintained contact with Sheehan’s Klaus. In the Season 1 finale, Ben manifested physically through Klaus to save his siblings, and by the looks of it, fans are going to see more of him in the new season. Meanwhile, there’s no word yet on whether Cameron Britton and Mary J. Blige will return as Hazel and Cha-Cha next season.
If The Umbrella Academy would be able to improve or at least keep its viewership, it’s possible that the series would be renewed by Netflix for multiple seasons in the future. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Way has eight graphic novels planned for the source material and would like to see the streaming service follow the same plan.
“The idea is not to deviate too much. We want to stay on course with what the comics are doing, and having that plan ahead of time allows us to set some things up now for later seasons, things that you’ll see and later be like, ‘Oh, I get that now, they did that for this reason.’ That’s what we’re thinking ahead to,” said showrunner Steve Blackman, who will return in the same capacity for Season 2, alongside exec producers Jeff F. King, Mike Richardson, and Keith Goldberg, as well as co-executive producers Way and Gabriel Ba, who provides the illustration for the comics.
Netflix has yet to announce a return date for Season 2, but production will resume in the summer in Toronto, Canada.