We ask the show’s creator, so what’s new for Team ‘Ella, ‘Ella, eh, eh, eh?
WHY TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE IN UMBRELLA ACADEMY S2…
In April 2019, Netflix announced the first season of superhero show The Umbrella Academy had been viewed by 45 million households within a month of release. Teens, twentysomethings, middle-aged parents… the show brought families together to binge and bond.
Maybe it was a smash because the characters have cool powers. Or perhaps it’s because it’s about a family, albeit one of unconventional origins. Let us explain for those who haven’t yet seen the show or read the Dark Horse source comics by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá: On 1 October 1989, 43 women around the world give birth simultaneously, despite none of them having shown signs of pregnancy. Billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore) adopts seven of the babies, and raises them as superhero siblings who, in the present day, battle to stave off an impending apocalypse.
“As in the first season, we’re going to have a wonderful ticking clock – 10 days to save the world!” says the show’s creator Steve Blackman of S2. However, the clock’s ticking in a very different era. “It’s set in the ’60s, which is a tumultuous time – communism, Civil Rights, the Kennedy assassination,” he explains. “[The characters] are going to have to find each other and come back as a family to save the world.” Although the time-travel experience has left
them separate from each other,the whole gang is back: Vanya (Ellen Page), Luther (Tom Hopper), Allison (Emma Raver-Lampman), Klaus (Robert Sheehan), Diego (David Castañeda), Ben (Justin H. Min) and Number Five (Aidan Gallagher). There are also some intriguing new characters.
RIGHTS DIRECTION
“Ray [The Originals’ Yusuf Gatewood] is an amalgam of many Civil Rights leaders at the time,” says Blackman. “We really lean into the Civil Rights issues. When we were shooting it we all felt it emotionally. We couldn’t imagine that six months later we’d be dealing with the same thing [in the real world]
– people on the street, still fighting for their rights. How little has changed.”
Then there’s Sissy, played by Marin Ireland (Sneaky Pete). “Her story is about a woman trying to understand who she is in the ’60s,” says Blackman, teasing that the character is about to start a new chapter thanks to one Academy member: “And then here comes Vanya, this ray of light in her life...” He pauses and chuckles. “We also have some bad guys called The Swedes…”
Though S2 aims to be as peppy and entertaining as its predecessor, it’s also about fleshing out characters and deepening drama. But the big question is: will we meet some of the other 36 people who were born on that fateful day in 1989? “Your instinct is absolutely correct!” Blackman laughs. “There are other kids out there. I have a big plan for two more seasons, and I’d love to do the show as long as Netflix will have me. That’s a lot of fun for where we get to go, finding them and finding out that some of them are good, and some of them are… not good!” Jamie Graham
UMBRELLA ACADEMY S2 STREAMS ON NETFLIX FROM 31 JULY.