Umbrella Academy Creator Reveals Scene From Comic That’s Too Expensive for TV

Fans of The Umbrella Academy comic books have now had three seasons of the Netflix adaptation, but sadly some major elements from the Dark Horse Comics series haven’t made it onto the screen. Though quite a bit from the source material has been realized in live-action, some key battles from the time that The Umbrella Academy were children have yet to appear in the show, moments like their fight with the Lincoln Memorial thath as come to life and a fight inside the Eiffel Tower with Zombie-Robot Gustave Eiffel. Apparently it’s not for lack of trying as series creator Steve Blackman revealed in a new interview.

Speaking with Netflix’s Tudum, Blackman was asked if there were moments from the comics he wanted to bring to life but couldn’t, and unsurprisingly the answer is yes. “Oh my gosh, so many things,” the series showrunner replied. “There’s the great Eiffel Tower story we wanted to do from the first few pages of the kids fighting Gustave Eiffel and the tower that comes to life as a robot. We’ve budgeted those things. I sat down with the effects teams and said, “How much would this be?” And then I get sticker shock. There’s some things I wanted to do in Dallas in Season 2 that we simply couldn’t afford to do, but we did get to Dealey Plaza. I was really proud we could actually do that.”

Blackman concluded his interview with the outlet with a cryptic tease for what a potential season four of the series could look like, teasing a major storyline. He replied: “One of the stories I want to tell next year, if we’re picked up, is one of the graphic novel’s biggest mysteries. I don’t want to say what it is, but the fans will probably figure it out.”

Throwing out a guess, there’s two potential things he’s referring to, both of which are huge question marks for fans, even those that have read the comics. 1. What caused the Umbrella Academy to be born? 2. Since Sir Reginald Hargreeves is an alien….what’s his deal? The series is well suited to answer both of these in a potential fourth season however, with the Hagreeves having remade the world in his image at the end of season three.

The Netflix series went out of its way to specifically re-reference the birth of the Umbrellas by showing the birth of The Sparrow Academy, and it did so by focusing on specific particles that appeared to float out of nowhere and impregnate their moms. These same particles appeared again in the seaosn finale, when the Umbrellas were trapped in the machine of the Hotel Oblivion which Hargreeves used to reset the universe. He revealed that the unique energy from their bodies fed the machine, perhaps tying the creation of Hotel Oblivion (itself created by ….whoever built the universe) directly to the creation fo the Umbrellas. But that’s a story for them to tell, maybe.