A time paradox makes for a “freaking Kugelblitz” in Umbrella Academy S3 trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs6alRuY1UU

Returning to 2019, Hargreeves’ siblings are caught in an alternate timeline where they were never adopted by their wealthy father in the official trailer for The Umbrella Academy S3. Instead, they must confront their alt-timeline counterparts, the Sparrow Academy, and fend off yet another apocalypse as they once again attempt to return home.

(Spoilers for the first two seasons below.)

For those unfamiliar with the premise, in S1, billionaire industrialist Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore) adopted seven of 43 children mysteriously born in 1989 from random women who hadn’t been pregnant the day before. Raised in Hargreeves’ Umbrella Academy, with the help of a robotic mother named Grace (Jordan Claire Robbins), the children became a family of superheroes with special powers. But it was a dysfunctional arrangement, marred by the tragic death of one of the children, and the relatives eventually separated, only to be reunited as adults when Hargreeves died. They soon learned that they had to work together to prevent a global apocalypse.

As I’ve written before, S1 ended on a cliffhanger after Vanya (Elliot Page) rediscovered his powers and destroyed the moon with the acoustic energy he gathered by playing the violin at a concert at the Icarus Theater. As the fragments of the moon rained down on Earth, marking the beginning of the apocalypse, Five (Aidan Gallagher) volunteered to take his siblings back in time so they could once again try to avert the destruction of the world. . The S1 final ended with the group’s time jump.

But that jump didn’t go smoothly. The siblings landed in the early 1960s, but they all arrived in Dallas at different times between 1960 and October 1963. Five landed on November 25, 1963, just in time to witness nuclear destruction in connection with the fact that history had changed when the assassination of President John F. Kennedy did not take place. Five managed to travel back to 10 days before the nuclear apocalypse and track down the separated siblings, who had all built new lives for themselves.

While negotiating a deal with the Handler (Kate Walsh), head of the Commission, the Umbrella Academy had to figure out how to avert the apocalypse so they could return to their original timeline. They were also chased by a trio of Swedish assassins determined to exterminate them. And we learned that their adoptive father, Reginald Hargreeves, was actually an interdimensional being with his own pretty devastating superpowers.

The siblings eventually managed to travel back to 2019, but found that the timeline had changed. Hargreeves was still alive in this timeline, having adopted five different “gifted” children who were part of the Sparrow Academy – including their late sibling Ben (Justin H. Min), who appeared in the first two seasons as a ghost who could communicate only through Klaus (Robert Sheehan). In the new timeline, Ben is very much alive and remembers nothing about the Umbrella Academy or his original siblings.

That’s quite a setup for S3. According to the official premise:

After bringing doomsday to an end in 1963, the Umbrella Academy returns to the present, convinced they’ve prevented the first apocalypse and restored this godforsaken timeline once and for all. But after a brief moment of celebration, they realize that things aren’t exactly (okay, not at all) as they left them. Enter the Sparrow Academy† Smart, stylish and about as warm as a sea of ​​icebergs, the Sparrows immediately clash with the Umbrellas in a violent showdown that turns out to be the least of everyone’s worries. Navigating their own challenges, losses and surprises – and dealing with an unidentified destructive entity wreaking havoc on the universe (something they may have caused) – now all they have to do is convince Daddy’s new and possibly better family to take them. help rectify what made their coming wrong. Will they find a way back to their pre-apocalyptic lives? Or is this new world going to reveal more than just a hiccup in the timeline?

We know that Vanya will come out as a transgender man, Viktor, in S3, a reflection of Elliott Page’s own real-life transition. And it looks like Ritu Arya will reprise her role as Lila, the adopted daughter of the late Handler (and Diego’s love interest) from 1963, who may reflect the powers of other gifted people. Ben’s fellow Sparrows in the new timeline are Marcus (Justin Cornwell), Fei (Britne Oldford), Alphonso (Jake Epstein), Sloane (Genesis Rodriguez), and Jayme (Cazzie David).

The trailer picks up where S2 left off, when the Umbrellas confront Reginald, who insists they don’t belong there, leading to the reveal of the Sparrows and Ben. “When we jumped here, we created a time paradox,” explains Five. “Our little paradox spawned the damn Kugelblitz.” In physics, a kugelblitz is a black hole formed from radiation rather than matter. In the series, the Kugelblitz is a glowing cube that appears to be some sort of powerful weapon. It could just turn into a black hole (if it’s not already there), as the paradox seems to be swallowing everything up. That’s right, we still have an impending apocalypse on our hands, and only four or five days to save the world.

It’s good to see that the wry humor that elevated S2 above his somewhat stiffer freshman outing is intact. There is the inevitable battle between Umbrellas and Sparrows, but maybe they decide to combine their gifts and work together, for apocalypse. There is a great scene where Viktor tells Marcus that he is no better than him. “I ended the world twice,” says Viktor. “And you? You’re just meat and spandex.” Burn!

We may encounter the alternate versions of the Umbrellas in this new timeline, because while they weren’t adopted by Hargreeves, they should still exist. And what should our originals do when they meet those other selves? Diego wants to kill him himself and Klaus wants to sleep with his counterpart. (“Oh, come on, like you weren’t going to climb Luther Mountain,” he says when Luther objects.) Avoidance is the wisest course of action, which probably means no one will take it.

And has that Hotel Oblivion that unexpectedly makes its appearance been renamed Hotel Obsidian? In the comics, the hotel is a tower on another planet, built by Hargreeves, that serves as a prison for all the criminals imprisoned by the Umbrella Academy. It is briefly mentioned in The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite and plays a major role in 2019 The Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivionin which a super villain named Perseus X breaks out of all the prisoners in 1980. We’ll have to see how much of this storyline will make its way into the series, if any. look as if the hotel is on another planet and the name has changed, but its presence here in an alternate timeline is intriguing.

The third season of The Umbrella Academy will be released on Netflix on June 22, 2022.

Listing image by YouTube/Netflix