The Umbrella Academy ending is 'exactly what it needs to be', cast says

Watch: The Umbrella Academy cast weigh in on the show's ending

It's never an easy thing to end a story, at least it's not easy to do it in a way that will satisfy everyone watching — just look at Game of Thrones. But The Umbrella Academy cast tell Yahoo UK they are "proud" of how the Hargreeves family's story comes to an end in season 4.

Elliot Page, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Justin H Min, Aidan Gallagher and Ritu Arya all shared their thoughts on the matter after bidding farewell to their characters Viktor, Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Ben, Five, and Lila. While it might come as controversial to fans, the cast argue that it's the most fitting ending for the Netflix show's story.

Before we delve into how and why, be warned that this article contains spoilers for The Umbrella Academy season 4.

The Umbrella Academy ending is 'exactly what it needs to be'

The new episodes follows the Hargreeves family in the new timeline they found themselves in at the end of season 3, it's been six years since that fateful night when the group went their separate ways after losing their powers and now they have to come together to save the world, again, when they are tasked with helping new character Jennifer (Victoria Sawal).

It ends on a tragic note for our favourite dysfunctional family, though, because they realise that in order to stop the world from being destroyed over and over again there is only one thing they can do: cease to exist. They sacrifice themselves to The Cleanse —an apocalyptic event caused by Ben and Jennifer merging together— to create a timeline where they were never born, and Earth is safe.

Hopper argues that the storyline was the most appropriate way to close things out, saying: "The ending, I think, is exactly what it needs to be for this show, just the irony of that we're always trying to prevent the end of the world and actually where the where the problem so we gotta go.

"I think [we're] left with a sense of hope, but there's also this sense of completion and we've tied up a lot of loose ends but also left a few questions, which I think is always important. You don't wanna leave people going 'oh, we tied up every[thing]'.

"I always found that with the Lord of the Rings, that was like it never ended [and] 'we must tie up every loose end', I think it's nice to to leave a little bit of a question mark. So, I think it's done it's job."

When asked if they were happy with the show's ending, Min admits that "happy is a tough word" because of how sad it is to say goodbye to characters like this: "I think we feel a lot of things, it's very bittersweet. It's something that has been such an integral part of my life for so many years and having to say goodbye is always tough.

"But, again, knowing that this would be our final season and getting the opportunity to wrap up these storylines and answer some questions around Ben was really exciting and I was happy that we finally got to sort of dive into some of those things."

Page felt similarly, as he adds: "Going into the season, it was our final [and] knowing we could hopefully answer some of the questions, come to certain conclusions for the audiences, [I] feel good about it."

Castañeda was "very happy with the ability to come back" and add new depth to their characters, as they were more comfortable in their roles it meant everyone knew "what instrument everyone's singing" and it felt "almost like an orchestra". He adds: "I'm very proud and I'm very happy with how it ends."

"We're all so sad that the show is over," Gallagher admits. "The show has been very fun to do, it's a gratifying thing as an actor to get to play a great character arc, and speaking for myself there's definitely that this season. I was very happy to do that."

Arya went on: "The show, I think, ends in a very gratifying way. You get all the answers that you're needing and we go on quite an emotional rollercoaster through the season.

"Lila in particular has quite a raw and vulnerable journey, it was amazing getting to play at this time with the added depths of being a mother and having marriage, and she's still got her core mischievous side. I've loved playing her this season, it's been my favourite season for sure."

The final season has 'incredible character arcs'

Across the season, the cast were able to explore interesting angles for their characters over the course of the last six episodes. Klaus, for example, gets sober in the years between seasons 3 and 4 after losing his powers, and changes quite a bit in the wake of his own mortality.

Sheehan enjoyed exploring this side of Klaus, as he reflects: "It was a brilliant new way to change Klaus's relationship towards death. That's been his whole journey, he's been the manifestation of death in the form of ghosts that he was terrified of, and then he kind of found some freedom beyond it in the third season, and now he's kind of back to square one.

"He's terrified of death again, but in a different way. He's terrified of it actually happening now, whereas before I think he was terrified of the fact that deep down it could never happen, that he was doomed to be alive for the rest of eternity.

"So he's kind of new to death, he's brand new to death and I just loved that because it was a very fresh way of reinventing Klaus's relationship to death. I got to play him as a little dribbly, snively librarian of a fellow with latex gloves on — no offence to librarians."

Klaus' arc ties closely with Allison as the siblings live together after being thrust into a new timeline without their powers. Season 4 sees Raver-Lampman's character have her relationships with Klaus and her daughter Claire tested.

"It's just been wonderful to just feel so fulfilled as an actor to get to tell such a variety of different stories within one show," Raver-Lampman says. "With Allison, I think so much of her through line this entire show has been Claire, is getting back to Claire, is finding Claire, is wanting to finally show up and be the mom and the parent that she never really had.

"I think we get to see her do that for a little bit this season, which was really exciting... it was really fun to just to see Allison be a mum in the way that I think she was desperately trying to be for so many seasons over so many years, and it's devastating that it comes to an end very quickly. But at least she got the time that she did."

Gallagher says that he hopes fans will be "an emotional wreck" when they see how the show comes to an end, adding: "I hope they really feel it. I think it's a great thing that this show is based around family, it's very relatable. That's one of the important things in life if you're lucky enough to have it.

"Seeing what they go through in the struggle to, as a family, make peace with their existence and with their lives, where they want to be, or supporting the family that they do have and sacrificing themselves in that process are very heavy and important subjects. It's cool to be a part of the show where that's a main feature but feels fully ingrained in the universe."

The Umbrella Academy's final season is out now on Netflix