Stop Whatever You’re Doing & Read These Clever Umbrella Academy Season 3 Theories

There are two frustrating things about the end of The Umbrella Academy season 2. For one, reaching the end of the season means it’s done, and we'll have to wait at least a year for more. And two, there are thousands more questions than there are answers. If you figured everything would be tied up with a neat bow by the end of episode 10, then you need to spend more time with the Hargreeves siblings. They are a recipe for chaos, which is why we love them, and why The Umbrella Academy season 2 left so many hanging threads.

Though The Umbrella Academy hasn’t officially been renewed for a third season at Netflix, it's a massively popular series so the pneumatic tube is in the mail, so to speak. Until we get an official answer though, now’s a great opportunity to dive into some theories about how everything that just happened is going to affect what happens next. 

And before you go, I'll just read the comics, let me stop you right there. Season 2 follows The Umbrella Academy comic book arc, Dallas, but it greatly diverges from what’s written on the page. The end of the season also hints at elements from the latest series, Hotel Oblivion, without providing much in the way of details. That’s a recipe for fans' imaginations to run wild, so yes, there are already some grade A Umbrella Academy theories floating around out there on Reddit and beyond. Let's dive in.

The biggest shock comes at the end of season 2 when the siblings realize they’ve done something wrong (again), because now The Umbrella Academy is The Sparrow Academy. Who are they? In the comics, The Sparrow Academy is actually called The Sparrows, and they are a new superhero group introduced towards the end of Hotel Oblivion. Not much is known about them in the comics and on the show, we're in the same boat. Also one of them is... a glowing green box? 

Season 2 does of course introduce us to the idea that the many other kids born on October 1, 1989 are still out there, so it’s highly possible that The Sparrow Academy is made up of these kids, including the previously deceased Ben (Justin H. Min). However, from their silhouettes, they do look a bit younger than the rest of the Hargreeves siblings. 

On top of that, The Sparrow Academy is teased a few times during season 2, like on the files in Reginald's (Colm Feore) office as captured by redditor Tezrion here.

Though we saw a little bit more about the time surrounding the incident, we still don’t know how Ben died. According to all the Hargreeves children, it was an accident but… what does that mean? What went wrong? It’s been theorized that Ben actually died by suicide, considering he was nicknamed “The Horror” and witnessed far more terrifying things, thanks to the fact this his power is basically being a walking demon portal. Also, it should be noted, that every episode of The Umbrella Academy starts with a warning Netflix saying that the show depicts suicide but, we haven’t explicitly seen this in any episode. (To play devil's advocate, Reginald is revealed to have died by suicide in season 1.)

Reddit user WhyRtheresomanyofU also suggests that maybe Ben’s death was intentional and Reginald's fault. This theory goes that Ben's “horrors” might have been too much for Reginald Hargreeves and that, much like his treatment of Vanya, Reginald took matters into his own hands to study Ben somewhere away from the other Academy members. Read the full theory here.

There are still thousands upon thousands of questions surrounding The Commission since we still know very little about how and why they work the way they do. Season 2 introduces us to the trio of Swedes, which The Handler (Kate Walsh) says have been dispatched by The Commission. But... were they really? Aside from The Handler, they never interact with anyone else from The Commission and don’t even receive “official” messages — the only one we see is actually a fake one... from The Handler and Lila.

Reddit user MS_Anxiety suggests that they’re not really from The Commission and their story might not be done yet and that “the Swedes goals never seem to line up with either The Commissions or The Handler’s goals." This theory involves more time travel (naturally) and cites the photograph of the Swedes, which they say looks too old to be from The Handler's era. Read the full theory here.

Vanya (Ellen Page) spends much of season 2 asking Sissy to go with her back to 2019, and to bring Harlan (Justin Paul Kelly) along as well. In the end, Sissy decide to stay in 1963, and the duo head out to California to start a new life in the '60s. Vanya assumes she took all of her powers back from Harlan, but that’s clearly not the case because we see him levitate his bird toy in the backseat of the car on the way to California. And what's that? Could the bird be a little wooden... sparrow? 

Speaking of sparrows, Reginald knows about children with powers almost 30 years before the Umbrella Academy, and all the other super powered children, will be born in 1989. But Harlan is out there in 1963 and he has powers. Per Situationalists' theory (read the full thing here) on Reddit, it's possible that Reginald “found out about Harlan’s power and started the Sparrow Academy for him in 1963-70 because of his power" and that the Umbrella Academy's impact on the '60s, but mostly Harlan, changed everything.

Season 2 ends with the reveal that dear old Dad has replaced his children with a brand new crime-fighting group, The Sparrow Academy, which includes “Emo Ben.” At first glance, this storyline seems to mean that the Hargreeves siblings just messed up so much that they were never brought together in the first place. But what if the assembly of this new crew was more intentional than that? 

Reddit user hotsizzler suggests that Reginald put together the Sparrow Academy as a reaction to meeting the children he screwed up at the Tiki dinner in the '60s. In this theory, which you can read in full here, Reginald actually does this out of compassion, which would be new(ish) look for him.

But why is Ben in this group? Well, Ben is the only one from The Umbrella Academy that Reginald doesn’t see in season 2 because, he's a ghost and Klaus (Robert Sheehan) refuses to tell the room that he's there. Reginald wouldn’t necessarily know he “messed up” Ben the first time around, so he'd have no reason not to pick him as the prime candidate for this new academy. 

A big shock for season 2 is that Grace (Jordan Claire Robbins) isn't just Mom, but she was actually a real person who dated Reginald. However, after learning about his shady activity (namely the stuff surrounding the JFK assassination) she leaves him. But it's unclear whether or not Grace leaving screws with the original timeline. Reddit user Epinier has a theory for that (read the whole thing here): “Grace was making him more human and this little compassion he had, he had because of her. He even made a copy of her to be a mother figure for the kids.” But with this new timeline, they argue it’s possible there’s no Mom at all and this lead to even more discipline for Reginald's recruits.

These are all great theories, but the possibilities are literally endless. Now that the series has stopped directly following the comics, The Umbrella Academy and its time traveling heroes could do just about anything.