The Umbrella Academy: The End Of The World Is Coming In New Trailer
Who says you can't have a little fun ahead of the apocalypse?
The guys and gals of Netflix's The Umbrella Academy shake their hips and sashay through their childhood home in stolen skirts in the first full-length trailer for the superhero series, follows six dysfunctional teens as they attempt to prevent the end of the world.
Netflix unveiled the footage, plus a slick new poster displayed at the bottom of this article, on Thursday.
Based on the comic book series of the same name created by writer Gerard Way (yes, that Gerard Way of the now-defunct emo-rock band My Chemical Romance) and illustrator Gabriel Bá, The Umbrella Academy tells the story of six individuals born out of incredibly unusual circumstances. As the trailer outlines, one day in October 1989, 43 women around the world gave birth. None of these women were related or connected in any way, and none had been pregnant when the day first began. A billionaire, Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore), forks over what we can only assume is an insane amount of money to "adopt" six of these children, all of whom have been "gifted with abilities far beyond the ordinary."
Sir Reginald, who's also referred to as the Monocle, dubs his children — you guessed it — the Umbrella Academy. There's Vayna (Ellen Page), a.k.a. the White Violin, who doesn't exhibit any special powers but who is an expert violinist; Luther (Tom Hopper), a.k.a. Spaceboy, a wannabe astronaut with super-strength; Klaus (Robert Sheehan), a.k.a. The Séance, an eccentric, fashion-forward slacker with the power of telekinesis and the ability to speak to the dead; Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), a.k.a. The Rumor, who can bend reality simply by lying; Diego (David Castañeda), a.k.a. the Kraken, the rebel of the family who can throw knives and hold his breath like nobody's business; and Number Five (Aiden Gallagher), a.k.a. the Boy, who can travel through time. Also in the Hargreeves bunch is Pogo (Adam Godley), a chimpanzee who serves as Sir Reginald's assistant.
Seventeen years after their adoption, the Umbrella Academy reunite when they learn that their father has died. As Luther dumps Sir Reginald's ashes on the ground, Diego quips that he "was a monster," a likely reference to the methods he employed when training the gang to one day save the world.
And save the world the Hargreeves clan will certainly have to do.
Their father's death brings the estranged, dysfunctional crew together again — but it's Number Five's discovery that the apocalypse is coming in just eight days and that a force of evil is attempting to stop them from preventing the apocalypse that lights a fire underneath their feet.
"Everything about our family is insane," Number Five says in voiceover as the trailer shows clips of the six dancing about, downing drinks, and coming face to face with bad guys carrying guns. "It always has been."
As the Umbrella Academy starts piecing together the mystery of the impending apocalypse and the people and/or things trying hard to make it actually happen, they maintain a shared rock-and-roll attitude. Allison kicks an enemy square in the back of the knees, sending him straight to the floor; Klaus seemingly goes dumpster-diving after an encounter with an adversary; Diego tracks down a villain with ease; and Vayna and Allison have a "yay, sisters!" cheers over a few cocktails. All the while, we catch glimpses of Mary J. Blige's Cha-Cha, a hit-woman with a love for killing who jumps through time to take out her targets, and Cameron Britton's Hazel, the Clyde to Cha-Cha's Bonnie. There's something fishy about these two, and we're interested to find out what they're hiding.
Set to Way's electric cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "A Hazy Shade of Winter," the new trailer for The Umbrella Academy looks promising. With companies gaining more and more interest in comic book adaptations in recent years — like streamer Hulu, the home of Marvel's Runaways, and Syfy, which formally debuted Deadly Class earlier this month — any superhero series from here on out will have to be something special to break through and stand out at the forefront of the genre.
The good news for The Umbrella Academy is that it no longer has to compete with three of Netflix's biggest superhero shows, as the streaming site canceled Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and Daredevil in late 2018. Granted, The Umbrella Academy will still sit in the same category as The Punisher and Jessica Jones and feels markedly different in tone than they do, that it doesn't have to fight as hard to capture audiences' eyes and turn their attention away from Netflix's Marvel superhero shows is a good thing.
Judging by this new footage, The Umbrella Academy should be a smashing success — and might even end up one of Netflix's best original series of 2019. It's giving us serious X-Men-meets-Kick-Ass vibes while it teases a hair-flipping, guns-blazing, wonderfully weird time spent saving Earth and all of humanity from death and destruction — and we are here for it.
If you readers are as excited to see The Umbrella Academy as we are, get ready for the series' 10-episode first season to premiere on February 15.
