Umbrella Academy season 3 posters tease a new team member

Spoilers follow for The Umbrella Academy seasons 1 and 2.

The Umbrella Academy are set to team up with a former enemy, if new season 3 character posters are anything to go by.

To celebrate the superhero TV series' third anniversary on February 15, Netflix released a bunch of new one-sheets on its Umbrella Academy-focused social media accounts. And, after scrolling through them, Netflix has all-but-confirmed that season 2 antagonist Lila Pitts will join the supergroup's ranks in The Umbrella Academy season 3.

With Ben Hargreeves giving his life (again) to save his siblings in the Netflix show's second season, there's a vacancy in the usually seven-strong team's line-up. Given that Lila almost joined The Umbrella Academy at the end of season 2, and the fact she has romantic feelings for Diego Hargreeves, it seems logical that she'd eventually team up with them over a common foe.

Check out the brand-new season 3 posters via the Twitter thread below:

Why is Lila joining forces with The Umbrella Academy? Because of The Sparrow Academy, of course.

Based on the talon-like tears in each Umbrella Academy member's, well, umbrella, it's clear that The Sparrows won't see eye-to-eye with their fellow superheroes. We don't think that The Sparrows will be season 3's main villain – we actually expect both groups to join forces by the end of the season – but there'll definitely be competition between them early on. And, given that The Umbrella Academy aren't the most talented, co-ordinated superhero group, we imagine that The Sparrow Academy will have the edge over them in the first half of season 3.

The Umbrella Academy season 3's new posters aren't the only piece of news to emerge ahead of the show's return. Recently, we learned that a Euphoria star had signed on to appear in the series' third season. Meanwhile, a piece of season 3 concept art suggests that this may be the saddest entry in the show yet.

Analysis: is an Umbrella Academy season 3 release date set to be announced?

It's certainly possible. As we mentioned, we know that season 3 will land on Netflix sometime this year. And, judging by recent comments made by one of the show's stars, and Netflix ramping up its marketing campaign for the show's next season, we could hear something very soon.

Let's start with those quotes from star Emmy Raver-Lampman, who plays Alison Hargreeves. Speaking to Collider, Raver-Lampman revealed that there was still plenty of post-production work that needs completing for season 3's arrival. However, Raver-Lampman also expressed her hope that The Umbrella Academy would return to Netflix "this summer", which certainly whipped fans into a frenzy online.

Ordinarily, we wouldn't take such quotes at face value – after all, these are the hopes of one of the show's stars, rather than anything substantial. But, in recent days, Netflix has been making a concerted push to remind people that The Umbrella Academy season 3 is on the way.

As we touched on above, February 15, 2022 marks the third anniversary of Netflix's live-action adaptation of Gerard Way and Garbriel Ba's graphic novel series. To commemorate the occasion, other Netflix-owned social media accounts chimed in with celebratory posts. Netflix Geeked reminded us of how far the supergroup had come over the past two seasons, while the streamer's UK Twitter account doubled down on season 3's forthcoming launch with an "it's coming" tagline as it showed off the new one-sheets.

Curiously, each of the Umbrella Academy member's shadows (on their posters) is set at the 11 o'clock position. If we join the '3' (the number of the show's next season) together with 11, we get 3.11. In US calendar terms, that represents a specific date, March 11.

Could this be the date that we finally get a teaser trailer and a release date announcement? Sure, it's a stretch on our part, but maybe. Traditionally, Netflix doesn't reveal launch dates and trailers for its biggest movies and TV shows until a few months before release. If The Umbrella Academy season 3 is set for a summer 2022 arrival, March 11 seems like a decent fit for some form of announcement.

Let's hope it isn't too long, then, before Netflix officially confirms when The Umbrella Academy season 3 will air.

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