The Umbrella Academy Fan Theory 30% Of People Believe

It's barely been two years since the first season of "The Umbrella Academy" became a blockbuster hit for streaming giant Netflix. With a blistering second season already in our wake and a third on the way, the pseudo-superhero saga will likely continue to win over viewers who enjoy a little snarky hyper-violence with their super-powered shenanigans. Given where Season 2 left things for the Hargreeves clan, it's safe to say things are only going to get weirder for everyone moving forward. 

Yes, that includes the steadfast fans of "The Umbrella Academy," many of whom found their heads swimming in the wake of several shocking Season 2 finale twists, the biggest of which found Number 5 (Aidan Gallagher), Vanya (Elliot Page), Klaus (Robert Sheehan), and the rest of the gang finally escaping the 1960s, only to return to a dramatically altered present. Even as "The Umbrella Academy" boasts award-winning source material for fans to reference (My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way's and Gabriel Bá's beloved graphic novels of the same name), the show has diverged so far from the books to date, wild theories abound regarding what the existence of The Sparrow Academy means for our heroes.   

Those theories sit alongside dozens of others spawned by fans over the first two seasons of "The Umbrella Academy," of course. Knowing said fandom's unbridled adoration of some good old-fashioned narrative spit-balling, we decided to ask a slew of viewers which wild theory they found most likely to be true. A total of 536 viewers responded, and it seems the most believed theory out there doesn't entirely revolve around The Sparrow Academy. Rather, many fans of "The Umbrella Academy" think a popular theory about Ben Hargreeves (Justin H. Min) to be quite probable.

More specifically, 29.29% of respondents fully subscribe to the theory that Ben Hargreeves never actually died. That theory first started taking shape a while back on Reddit, and it's slowly been allowed to gain steam. This is mostly because the mysterious circumstances of Ben's demise when the Hargreeves' were teens has never been directly addressed either on the show, or in the pages of Way's books. 

As noted by theory poster WhyRtheresomanyofU, they believe Ben has indeed been alive, but possibly comatose for years after the fateful encounter that presumably killed him. Likewise, they think that Sir Reginald (Colm Feore) — in what would prove a very Sir Reginald move – kept Ben's comatose status a secret from the rest of the gang, telling them instead he'd died. They go on to posit that Klaus may simply be communing with his brother's consciousness and not his spirit. As for where Ben has been, and why he's continued to age alongside his family, that Redditor has a pretty clear idea, pointing to the possibility that Ben's body may be resting in The Hotel Oblivion somewhere on dark side of the moon, and as Ben's unconscious body would've continued to age, so too has his consciousness.

Regarding where Ben flitted off to in that tear-jerking Season 2 exit, the theorist claims the light Ben was afraid to go toward was that of consciousness and not the afterlife. Likewise, they believe Vanya's powers may have finally beamed Ben's soul back to his unconscious body, wherever that may be. There's more to the madness to be certain. And as unlikely as WhyRtheresomanyofU's theorizing might seem, it also doesn't feel entirely out of the realm of possibility for a show where pretty much anything is possible.