Umbrella Academy Showrunner Hopes to Never Get Ahead of the Source Material Like Game of Thrones

Warning: Full spoilers for The Umbrella Academy season two below!

When the sixth season of Game of Thrones debuted, it began covering elements of the story that readers of George R. R. Martin’s novels didn’t know. The final three seasons all premiered without the prose basis for the episodes being published, but Umbrella Academy readers will hopefully not have to worry about that with the Netflix series. At the end of the show’s second season however the streaming adaptation has caught up to the most recent comics. Even though the plotline of The Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion wasn’t covered all that much, season two of the series features the same ending as that volume of the books as it introduced The Sparrow Academy crew of super powered kids.

Speaking with ComicBook.com in an exclusive interview, we asked series showrunner Steve Blackman how he intends to navigate now being in the same space as HBO’s fantasy series. The good news is that Blackman says unlike Game of Thrones, he never intends to get ahead of the comics, so you’ll never find out the story of the comics from watching the show.

“First of all, I am very close with Gerard and Gabriel, so I pitch them the season before I do it, let them know what I’m doing,” Blackman said. “They’re very kind and they’re pitching me where they’re going in the next volumes, and you know, the two mediums are sort of crossing over now, sometimes they’re looking at something I do and say, we should put that in the graphic novel, and they’re saying, well, why don’t you do this in the show. We accept they’re sort of different things, but we love any times we can find these crossovers. But I have a good sense of where they’re going, I have an idea of where I want to go, and we’re sort of working together to get to that happy place. But I don’t want to get ahead of them. I love what they do. So hopefully if it times out, it never will.”

Game of Thrones fans will note that they’ve heard that song before with regard to George R.R. Martin’s writing speed. The good news for comic creators Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá is that they have plenty of time to get the next volume out as season three of Umbella Academy has not yet been ordered by Netflix.

In a new interview with Forbes Way confirmed that the fourth volume of the comic will be subtitled “Sparrow Academy.” Considering the cliffhanger ending of season two there will no doubt be overlap between the next season and the next batch of comics, hopefully we see the later first.