Netflix buried the ‘The Umbrella Academy’ spin-off series ‘The Sparrow Academy’ in the graveyard
The Umbrella Academy’s fourth and final season on Netflix will air in August 2024. This will be the end of the show’s run, with the long-rumored spin-off series reportedly no longer moving forward.
First introduced in season 3 of the show, The Sparrows are a rival group to The Umbrella Academy that emerged after a change in the timeline.
The group featured Marcus Hargreeves (played by Justin Cornwell), Ben (Justin H. Min), Fei (Britne Oldford), Alphonso (Jake Epstein), Sloane (Genesis Rodriguez), Jayme (Cazzie David), and Christopher.
Following their introduction, the creative team behind The Umbrella Academy began developing a spin-off series.
The synopsis for the spin-off was as follows:
“An Umbrella Academy spinoff following The Sparrow Academy, an Academy of seven children born on the same day and adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves following a change in the timeline caused by their counterparts, the Umbrella Academy. The Sparrow Academy is almost identical to the Umbrella Academy, but built with what Hargreeves believes to be a better set of children.”
The last we heard about the project was in early 2023, but we haven’t heard anything over the past year. Netflix told us in May 2023 that The Sparrow Academy was a spin-off in development but wasn’t currently near a greenlit stage. It added at the time that projects constantly evolve.
News of the spin-off no longer moving forward comes via Rolling Stone (confirmed by a representative) in an expose into the showrunner of The Umbrella Academy, Steve Blackman. The report alleges the showrunner created “a hostile workplace” while working on the flagship show, although he denies any wrongdoing.
Of course, another big Netflix series, Shadow & Bone, had a spin-off series in development at Netflix called Six of Crows, although that similarly never got to the greenlight stage and was canceled last year.
Picture: Netflix
Two other shows with Steve Blackman attached are reportedly in trouble at the streamer. We’re referring to Orbital, a limited space sci-fi series, and Horizon Zero Dawn, a series based on the popular PlayStation franchise. There’s currently conflicting information about what has happened to them. The Rolling Stone report was updated to include that Blackman was no longer connected to them, but a post on X by the author suggests they’ve both been shelved altogether. We’ve reached out to Netflix for clarification, although, given the holidays, we don’t expect a swift answer.
This article is a work-in-progress. Keep checking back for further updates.
Are you disappointed Netflix isn’t developing a spin-off series for The Umbrella Academy? Let us know in the comments.
