What is the Sparrow Academy in ‘The Umbrella Academy’ season three?

In the new trailer for Netflix’s upcoming third season of The Umbrella Academy, we see the superpowered siblings face off against a seemingly similar cohort, the Sparrow Academy. But for those of us who need some catching up to do from the previous two seasons, just what is the Sparrow Academy, anyway?

As some fans of the show may know already, the Umbrella Academy was formed by Colm Feore’s Sir Reginald Hargreeves, who adopted seven of the 43 children who were born on the same day in 1989 to mothers without prior signs of pregnancy, with the intention to train them in case they needed to save the world. The titular team members all happened to have superpowers, as well.

In season two, members of the Umbrella Academy find themselves scattered throughout the 1960s — having traveled back in time — after escaping an apocalypse brought on by Elliot Page’s Viktor Hargreeves at the end of season one. While in the ’60s, the team must reunite and find a way to revert the timeline once again. They seemingly succeed, but it results in a sort of butterfly effect in which Reginald selects different children for his cohort of superpowered trainees, who would later grow up to become the Sparrow Academy.

With the original Umbrella Academy members returning to the present, they come face to face with the Sparrow Academy and presumably do battle with one another. Interestingly, as the trailer indicated, the original Umbrella Academy members also exist in the now-changed present, but presumably, they are simply superpowered nobodies — not part of any highfalutin team. It remains to be seen whether the OG Umbrella Academy members will encounter their alternate timeline selves and create some kind of singularity — or be forced to battle to the death — by doing so.

Now that you know the setup for The Umbrella Academy season three, hopefully, that will clear the way for you to binge your way to comic book-inspired bliss when the show hits Netflix on June 22.