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The Umbrella Academy | Trailer Park | Film News, Buzz & Rumours

NETFLIX MAY HAVE DRAMATICALLY THINNED THE HERD OF ITS MARVEL ORIGINAL SERIES’, but the streaming giant isn’t abandoning superheroes entirely. The first season of The Umbrella Academy (dropping February 15), based on the comic book by former My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way, focuses on an estranged, superpowered family who reluctantly reunites following the death of their billionaire patriarch (Colm Feore).

“I think, on some level, what’s interesting about these kids is they actually haven’t been treated like outcasts during their lives,” says Ellen Page, who plays Vanya, the lone sibling who never manifested superpowers during childhood. “The kids, in a lot of ways, were exploited: merchandise, action figures, comics, they became celebrities,” with the exception of Vanya, who Page describes as having been “really, truly, ostracized by her family and her siblings, which obviously made her feel absolutely worthless.”

When the series begins, the family is fractured in part due to the actions of Page’s character, who capitalized on her childhood trauma by penning a memoir titled Extra Ordinary. It finally gave her success of her own, but at the cost of alienating the rest of her family. “She’s definitely fighting with herself in order to let go and overcome and hopefully forgive. She has a lot of resentment and anger.”

Despite its zany, neo-Gothic aesthetic and tone, The Umbrella Academy’s gritty portrayal of damaged familial relations makes it heartfelt and relatable. It’s what persuaded Page, who portrayed Kitty Pryde in the X-Men films, to return to the superhero genre. “When I first was sent the pilot [script], I loved it. I was engaged, it felt like nothing I’d seen before, funny, moving and when it ended, I wanted the next one.”