“The Umbrella Academy” showrunner previews the 'madness and chaos' of final season

"With their superpowers stripped away, who are they as a family?” Steve Blackman discusses the last chapter of Netflix's surreal superhero show.

Over the course of three seasons so far, the heroes of The Umbrella Academy have fought psychic dance battles, traveled through time to the ‘60s and back, and even faced down their own doppelganger family. But this time, they’re facing their biggest challenge of all: Being normal.

Class is almost over for The Umbrella Academy, which wraps its run on Netflix with a fourth and final season this August. As with the past few installments, season 4 opens with the Hargreeves superhero family trying to make sense of the new reality in which they’ve found themselves. This time, it’s about reckoning with their lack of superpowers, since season 3 ended with a reality-wide reset that rendered them all, well, normal. Luther (Tom Hopper) no longer had the body of a gorilla, Number Five (Aidan Gallagher) could no longer travel through time, and so on.

Related: Watch The Umbrella Academy cast discuss season 3 spoilers, their favorite new castmates, and more

“The first place I started with season 4 was: What happens if you were once a superhero and then suddenly you're not?” Showrunner Steve Blackman tells Entertainment Weekly. “What does that do to you? Not only as an individual, but what is the family dynamic when suddenly they find themselves normal? I think it's a challenge for all of them. What might've brought them together initially is the fact that, as a dysfunctional family, they found some connection in their abilities. With those superpowers stripped away, who are they as a family?”

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Some of them adjust better than others. Victor (Elliot Page), who you can see in our exclusive photo above, actually seems to appreciate life without the worry that he might kill everyone around him by making the wrong sound.

“Victor is probably the one sibling who is most comfortable in his skin in season 4,” Blackman says. “He’s doing better than any of the other siblings in terms of adjusting to his new life. He's the most accepting of their new reality.”

Related: Why the Umbrella Academy comics are still worth reading after binging the Netflix show

In EW’s other exclusive photo from season 4 of The Umbrella Academy, the family is gathered by the side of the road in “Wanda,” a van owned by Diego (David Castaneda). Even without their superpowers, the adoptive siblings are still gonna have to figure out how to get along, because they’re all they’ve got.

“This just exemplifies the chaos of having them back together as a family,” Blackman says. “Clearly they've been in some kind of mishap and there they are again, trying to figure things out as a family. This sums up the madness and chaos of the season in one shot.”

All may not be as it seems, though. This is the final season of The Umbrella Academy, after all, so anything is on the table and the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been. Blackman doesn’t want to give too much away this early, but says that viewers should pay close attention to what exactly happened between Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) and Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore) in the final moments of season 3.

Related: Apocalypse Wow: The Umbrella Academy cast on their time-bending second season

“Fans may remember that at the end of season 3, Hargreeves wasn't able to finish programming the Universe Machine, and Allison still pressed the button anyway,” Blackman says. “So we're definitely in an altered version of our now. We're back to the time period they’ve always wanted to get back to! At least they start in the right year, but we know that something isn't right. My little teaser is clearly Hargreeves didn't finish what he needed to do before Alison pressed the button, so that is going to have repercussions to their timeline."

Season 4 of The Umbrella Academy premieres Thursday, Aug. 8, on Netflix.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.