Netflix officially announced season 3 of The Umbrella Academy last month, although nobody in their right mind was expecting the streaming service not to continue the tale of the dysfunctional Hargreeves clan. After all, the first batch of episodes drew in over 45 million viewers in the first four weeks it was available, instantly positioning the comic book adaptation as one of the platform’s biggest original shows ever.
Viewership figures for season 2 haven’t been revealed by Netflix yet, but by all accounts, the sophomore run was an even larger success. According to the Nielsen ratings, in fact, The Umbrella Academy was streamed for over three billion minutes in the week after the second season dropped, which is three times as many as The Mandalorian managed.
By all accounts, the series is second to only Stranger Things as the company’s marquee TV property, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that multiple further seasons are said to be in the planning stages. However, all good shows must come to an end eventually, whether it happens naturally or things get strung out for too long, and insider Daniel Richtman now claims that Netflix are considering continuing on the story of the Hargreeves with a feature film.
He offers no further details, though, so you’re best taking this one with a pinch of salt, especially when the closest that Netflix have come to spinning off one of their biggest shows was with El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, and even then they only hold the distribution rights to the AMC series. That being said, the scope and scale of The Umbrella Academy lends itself perfectly to a more cinematic and contained story, and with so many streaming services now available to choose from, Netflix could look to double down on their biggest guns.
