Steve Blackman, the showrunner behind the Netflix superhero series The Umbrella Academy, is confident that the show will avoid a major mistake made by Game of Thrones. Much like the HBO fantasy show, The Umbrella Academy has now gone past the source material. While this was seen by many to mark a decline in quality for Game of Thrones, Blackman has explained to Inverse why he is not worried about the same thing happening with the Hargreeves siblings and their comic book world.
The Umbrella Academy caught up with the comic book at the end of season 2 but unlike Game of Thrones, which passed the books by George R.R. Martin at the end of the fifth season, Netflix’s superhero series will not be left to its own devices.
“No pressure at all. Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá have great generosity of spirit. They know the next 10 volumes that they’ll write over a decade. So they always share with me where they think they’re going.”
Blackman assures fans of The Umbrella Academy that creators Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá will continue to be heavily involved in the Netflix adaptation for the foreseeable future. The writers behind the Dark Horse comic series on which the series is based know where the story and characters are going up to at least “10 volumes,” meaning that, while there are sure to be some changes made between the comic and show, the direction of The Umbrella Academy is not a black slate.
Blackman went on to double down on his assurance, stating unequivocally that they have no plans to go too far past what Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá have in mind.
“We’ve come to an understanding that the graphic novel and the TV show can coexist. We inspire each other. Things we do in the show, often they say, ‘Hey that’s cool, we’ll put that in the graphic novel’.”
The Umbrella Academy Season 3 Continues the Critical Acclaim of the Previous 2 Outings
Netflix
Released in 2019, the first season of The Umbrella Academy begins in 1989, when a highly unusual occurrence sees forty-three infants inexplicably born to random, unconnected women who showed no signs of pregnancy. Seven of these mysterious babies are adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves, a billionaire industrialist, who creates The Umbrella Academy and prepares his “children” to save the world.
“I’d like not to get too ahead of the comics. I don’t want the show to eventually completely go off to a corner that doesn’t match anything they’re doing.”
Season 3 picks up with the Hargreeves’ right after the events of the second season, dropping them into yet another godforsaken timeline. This time, The Umbrella Academy has been replaced by the Sparrow Academy, a smart, stylish, and about as warm as a sea of icebergs version of the superhero family. The Sparrows immediately clash with the Umbrellas in a violent face-off that turns out to be the least of everyone’s concerns. Will they find a way back to their pre-apocalyptic lives? Or is this new world about to reveal more than just a hiccup in the timeline?
Starring Elliot Page, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher as The Umbrella Academy, and Justin Cornwell, Britne Oldford, Jake Epstein, Genesis Rodriguez, and Cazzie David as The Sparrow Academy, The Umbrella Academy Season 3 landed on Netflix on June 22, and continues the critical acclaim that the comic book adaptation has been met with so far.
