TELLING THE HUMAN STORY OF A SUPERHERO FAMILY... The Umbrella Academy may tread superhero territory – but first and foremost it’s based on relatable human characters, as showrunner Steve Blackman tells
GEMMA DUNN
THE year is 1989. At the 12th hour of the first day of October, 43 women around the world suddenly find themselves nine-months pregnant and immediately give birth.
Piquing the interest of an eccentric billionaire, seven of the babies are adopted.
Each harbouring extraordinary abilities, the children form a superhero gang, destined to fight evil.
This inexplicable phenomenon sets the scene for Netflix’s latest original series, the highly anticipated
Umbrella Academy.
Power-charged with action, the family drama – based on the Eisner Awardwinning graphic novel series created and written by Gerard Way – the former frontman of My Chemical Romance
–and illustrated by Gabriel Ba – includes 10 episodes, each adapted by Fargo producer Steve Blackman.
The project first came to the Canadian-American around the time he was finishing up with sci-fi hit, Altered Carbon.
“I really wanted to stay with Netflix,” reasons Steve, who went on to serve as a showrunner on the epic new show. “They talked to me about a couple of projects and this was one of them.
“I got really excited about it. I want to tell relatable, human stories, and with The Umbrella Academy, I wanted to do that away from any trope of superheroes.
“To me, these are very grounded characters, they’re a family,” he adds.
“The fact that they have some abilities is, to me, secondary. It’s a
THE EARLY DAYS
ONCE adopted, the children soon realise that they pose more of a scientific interest to entrepreneur Hargreeves (played by House Of Cards’ Colm Feore).
Assigned numbers – and later names by Grace, the robot they call mom – the super-dysfunctional superheroes become known as Number 1/Luther; Number 2/Diego; Number 3/Allison; Number 4/Klaus; Number 6/Ben; Number 7/ Vanya. The fifth child is known as simply “Number 5”.
While numbers 1-6 spend their time training in order to form the academy, and their skills range from performing mind tricks to jumping through space and time, Number 7/Vanya finds herself excluded from the action.
“Hargreeves’ goal was to create a special force of children that could one day save the world,” explains Steve. “And it worked for a while. They were very successful when they were 12, as a force against evil.”
However, tragedy strikes when in their teens, one of the children finds themselves stuck in the future; and another dies during a mission. Shrouded in sadness, The Umbrella Academy disbands – and the siblings split.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT
a question mark over whether it was due to natural causes), the estranged siblings (played by Tom Hopper, David Castaned, Emmy RaverLampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher, Justin Min and Ellen Page) reunite at their childhood home.
But can they put tensions aside and work as a family again? Because they need each other, and more importantly, the world needs them.
“One of my favourite scenes from the pilot is early on, when they’re just sitting in a room together and no one’s saying a word,” Steve says of their homecoming.
“It’s just that relatable, awkward moment when you’re estranged from a family member,” he follows.
“I didn’t want them to come together and say,
‘OK, now we’re a family, let’s go fight bad guys.’ That’s not what this show is. The struggle for them is just to co-exist as a family member and be in the same room together – and, by the way, save the world at the same time.”