So, What's the Deal With the Sparrow Academy? Here's What It Means For the Hargreeves

Readers of the graphic novels have already met a version of the Sparrow Academy, but if you’re purely a series watcher, you might be asking who these six (minus Ben, since we already know him) are. Luckily, “The Umbrella Academy” showrunner Steve Blackman is shedding some light on the matter. In an interview with Inverse, Blackman made sure to note that the mysterious six siblings are “new people.” “They’re not our characters,” he said. “They are different people, and that’s all I can really say.”

For those who need more context, the Sparrow Academy has been introduced in the Gerard Way-penned graphic novels and will be heavily featured in the next book. Way told Forbes that volume four of the series will be called “Sparrow Academy” and deals with “a very big reveal in the ‘Umbrella Academy’ universe . . . and our siblings learn a lot about what was happening behind the scenes, as well as discovering the true nature of some characters that have been with them since the beginning.”

He added, “The series finally starts to answer the question: ‘What about the other babies born on that day, in that moment?’ The ‘Umbrella Academy’ siblings are not alone in the world anymore.”

Sounds ominous, doesn’t it? Well, the “Sparrows,” as they are called, make their first appearance in “The Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion” and don’t seem like they’re meant to be rivals to the Hargreeves at all. One of them refers to Luther as a brother and they appear to be present to help deal with a villain crisis, so it’s safe to assume that they’re also a group of the 43 children born under curious circumstances on Oct. 1, 1989, and don’t mean any harm to their “siblings.”

How that translates to the Netflix series is the real question.

Some people might be wondering why Ben is the sole Hargreeves sibling to make it into the Sparrow Academy, but it’s pretty easy to figure out. When Sir Reginald meets the six siblings for their dinner, he notes down all their names and abilities except for Ben. Other than for the obvious reason that Ben is dead and can’t introduce himself, none of the siblings want to discuss their deceased brother; they don’t give Sir Reginald his name or his ability. Klaus even refuses to tell anyone that Ben is still hanging around as his ghostly companion. So when Sir Reginald was going around, adopting his batch of children, he didn’t know that he was selecting the same child he had before. And sadly enough, it’s obvious that Ben benefited from his choices this time around – he’s still alive!

We don’t know much about the Sparrows just yet, but we can make some guesses about their abilities. We can safely assume that Ben retains his ability to summon monsters from other dimensions and manifest them through his body. Usually, we see that in the form of him sprouting giant tentacles from his body, but hopefully a third season will give us room to explore all the horrible beings he can call forth!

As for the rest of the Sparrows, in the comics, their powers are as follows: Number One has super-strength (and looks just like Luther); the blob-looking sibling can self-mutilate and transmit the damage to any targets; another sibling can fire an energy blast from their face; another can transform into a murder of crows to attack people; and there’s one who is just a floating cube that we would guess has some kind of telekinetic or mind-manipulation ability – because that’s how it always goes with floating cubes, right? There are two other siblings whose abilities are still unknown, so we’ll have to wait to figure them out in the comics or the series.

Season three of “The Umbrella Academy” will be an emotionally taxing one. The Hargreeves are overwrought with daddy issues, and if the flashbacks and family dinner in season two are any indications, they are not going to take the knowledge that Reginald purposely chose other children after meeting them well.

There’s also the question of how not being members of the Umbrella Academy has changed their individual lives. If Sir Reginald never adopted the six of them, who are they in the “new” 2019? It may still be the same timeline, but their lives would be completely different because of that one change. And something tells us that, even though they didn’t go through the trauma of being childhood superheroes, they didn’t have it easy growing up as superpowered kids. Who knows where their lives have taken them? Fans will find out when season three premieres June 22.