Netflix Orders Live-Action Umbrella Academy Series

If you have been waiting for some Umbrella Academy news, then Netflix is coming to put you out of your misery. The site just announced it put in an order for a live-action series based on Gerard Way’s award-winning series with illustrator Gabriel Bá.

According to Netflix’s announcement, The Umbrella Academy will be adapted into a 10-episode series. The show will closely follow Way’s Dark Horse comic which tells the story of an estranged superhero family. Characters like The Monocle, Kraken, Rumor, Spaceboy, Number Five, Séance, White Violin, and Horror are all expected to be featured in the Netflix series.

“I am thrilled that The Umbrella Academy has found a home at Netflix. I couldn’t think of a better place for the vision Gabriel Bá and myself had when creating the comic, and cannot wait for people to experience that world as a live action show,” said Gerard Way.

Netflix’s VP of Original Content also released a statement about the site’s acquisition of The Umbrella Academy. Cindy Holland said, “What drew us to The Umbrella Academy is that it’s wholly unique, visual and stylized. These aren’t the usual superheroes, and this series will embrace the singular tone of the graphic novels — dark yet humorous, supernatural yet grounded in reality. We’re excited to see this world and introduce these unforgettable heroes to Netflix members around the globe.”

This is not the first time news about The Umbrella Academy‘s live-action dreams have gone public. Back in 2015, news broke that a TV series based on the comic was being developed under UCP. Writer Jeremy Slater was tasked to helm the project. The Netflix series will springboard off the pilot Slater wrote, but the screenwriter will not be available to work on the full Umbrella Academy series moving forward.

Netflix has secured a showrunner and executive producer for the series already. Steven Blackman of Fargo will come on-board to oversee the series. Way will also serve as a co-executive producer.

If you are not familiar with Umbrella Academy, then you have some time to get acquainted. The series ran between 2007-2013 under Dark Horse, and it is set in an alternate history where John F. Kennedy was never assassinated. The comic follows an estranged family of heroes from the Umbrella Academy. The gang must reunite to save the world after having gone their separate ways, and Umbrella Academy managed to nab an Eisner Award in 2008 for its limited run.

The synopsis for Umbrella Academy‘s first volume can be read below:

“Once, the Umbrella Academy was unstoppable. Under the tutelage of their guardian and mentor, Dr. Reginald Hargreeves, its members spent their childhoods fighting evil and honing their extraordinary gifts.

Until something went terribly wrong.

Now, nine years later, the estranged members of the Umbrella Academy are reunited by the death of the only parent they’ve ever known and the rise of a new and terrible threat. Will they be able to overcome their history for long enough to save the world-one more time?”