“It’s definitely the best season yet.” It’s hard not to agree with Ritu Arya about The Umbrella Academy; even from the first episode of season four, the action and suspense are packed in – particularly after the huge showdown at the end of the previous season. “It was so much fun filming this season and there was another level of gratitude and love, knowing it’s the last one,” Arya tells me over Zoom from New York.

She was last seen in Barbie playing Pulitzer-winning Barbie and starred in the brilliant action-comedy film Polite Society, for which she received a British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) nomination in the category of best supporting performance. Arya also recently starred alongside Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds in Netflix’s most-viewed film of all time, Red Notice. She’s also a musician and is currently working on her debut album – something she’s really excited about.

But now, the actor is back in Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy for its fourth and final season.

In the new season, the Hargreeves siblings have scattered after the climactic showdown at the Hotel Oblivion led to a complete reset of their timeline. Now stripped of their powers, each is left to fend for themselves and find a new normal — with wildly varying degrees of success. Yet the trappings of their uncanny new world prove too hard to ignore for very long, especially when so much is going on.

Their father, Reginald, has stepped out of the shadows and into the public eye, overseeing a powerful and suspicious business empire. A mysterious association known as The Keepers holds secret meetings, believing that the reality they’re living in is a lie and a great reckoning is coming. “As these strange new forces conspire around them, the Umbrella Academy must come together one last time – and risk upsetting the shaky peace they’ve all endured so much to secure – to finally set things right,” reads the Netflix synopsis.

“She’ll always surprise you”: Ritu Arya on Lila’s journey into motherhood and mischief on The Umbrella Academy