How Did Ben Hargreeves Die in 'The Umbrella Academy'?

Even though Ben Hargreeves has been an important character in 'The Umbrella Academy ' and was pretty active throughout the two seasons, one has to keep in mind that he is dead. After the events of season 2, where Ben sacrificed himself to prevent Viktor (who was then called Vanya) from causing the apocalypse, he is technically ultimately gone, but season 3 still brings Justin H. Min's character back in an alternate timeline.

Ben's demise has been one of the most acute issues over the course of the two seasons, but we never actually got to know exactly how that happened. In a brief and less-than-gentle speech at Ben's funeral, Sir Reginald Hargreeves pinned the blame for Number Six's death on the rest of the Umbrella Academy, suggesting that the tragedy occurred during one of their missions.

There are not many details about the mission, however. After Ben returned as a ghost only visible to Klaus (Number Four), we learned that he was supposed to go to heaven, but was too afraid to "follow the light" – something that Ben revealed to Viktor during his sacrifice.

Still, even the two deaths do not mean we won't get to see more of Ben Hargreeves – who is now promoted to Number Two in the Sparrow Academy and has no idea that he is dead in some other timeline. The character appears to have an entirely different attitude, even though his superhuman abilities remain similar to those displayed by "our" Ben in the Umbrella Academy timeline.

With the fate of the alternate timeline remaining unknown, it's also unclear whether Ben from the Sparrow Academy joins his "variant" siblings from the Umbrella Academy or chooses to stay with his original family. What may happen, though, is the members of the Umbrella Academy telling Number Two the story of how Ben from their timeline actually died, potentially shedding light on the mystery for the viewers as well.

The new season consists of ten episodes, all of them available for us to binge-watch on Netflix on June 22.