The Science Behind a “Kugelblitz”—From ‘The Umbrella Academy’ Season 3 Trailer—Explained

Netflix has dropped the long-awaited trailer for The Umbrella Academy season 3 and it seems to be everything we hoped for. The Umbrella Academy‘s second season ended on a cliffhanger when it was revealed that the Hagreeves’ actions in the 1960s changed the timeline. This resulted in the Sparrow Academy being created rather than the Umbrella Academy. Also, the Hargreeves’ brother, Ben (Justin H. Min), and adoptive father, Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore), both previously deceased, are alive in the altered present.

We all remember Ben as the sweet brother who died and hung around with Klaus (Robert Sheehan) as a ghost. At the end of season 2, he sacrificed his ghostly presence to save the world and departed to the afterlife. In this altered timeline, though, his sweetness seems to have faded and now he’s kind of a dickhead. In fact, none of the Sparrows, whether blobs, birds, or cubes, are too friendly. This means that there is some serious sibling rivalry going on here.

There’s also going to be some pretty wonky things happening now that a time paradox has been created. In this timeline, Sir Reginald didn’t adopt most of the Umbrella Academy members, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t born. So, there’s another Luther (Tom Hopper), Diego (David Castañeda), Klaus, Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), Five (Aidan Gallagher), and Viktor (Elliot Page) somewhere out there living whatever would’ve happened if they hadn’t been adopted. Needless to say, this much damage to the timeline (and multiple sets of Hargreeves) is going to have serious consequences.

What is the Kugelblitz?

In The Umbrella Academy trailer, Five announces that their jump to the present created a time paradox which, in turn, created a Kugelblitz. According to Five, the Kugelblitz means that they are all screwed. While Five isn’t known for having the most positive outlook on life, he’s really not exaggerating here. The term “Kugelblitz” was coined by John Archibald Wheeler in 1955 and translates to “ball lightning.” In theoretical physics, a Schwarzschild Kugelblitz is an intense concentration of heat, light, or radiation. The intensity is so great that the Kugelblitz forms a boundary around itself that not even light can escape from.

It is predicted that if enough radiation is aimed at a Kugelblitz, it can form a full-fledged black hole. It would just be a black hole created from radiation rather than matter. Despite its different origins, it would have identical properties to a black hole of equivalent mass formed from matter. Some scientists have actually theorized that star ships could be powered by Kugelblitz. Yet, the energy needed to create a Kugelblitz of substantial size would be nearly impossible to generate. A gamma-ray laser would need to output 1/10th the power of the sun per second to generate a Kugelblitz. That’s about a billion times more powerful than the currently hypothesized gammy ray lasers.

What does this mean for The Umbrella Academy?

Well, it seems that the Hargreeves have created a Kugelblitz on Earth, and it could turn into a black hole. To put into perspective how very, very bad this is, a black hole with a radius measuring only a centimeter would have more mass than the Earth itself. This is why even a coin-sized black hole could destroy Earth.

So, it appears we’ve got another full-blown apocalypse on our hands. Of course, they’ve dealt with apocalypses before, but now they will need to figure out how to get rid of an intense concertation of radiation before it turns into an Earth-destroying black hole, all while possibly battling the Sparrow Academy, and maybe meeting less-than-nice versions of themselves. To put it mildly, the Hargreeves are going to have a lot on their plates.

(featured image: Netflix)