The Umbrella Academy (TV series)

The Umbrella Academy is an American superhero comedy-drama television series based on the comic book series of the same name written by Gerard Way, illustrated by Gabriel Bá, and published by Dark Horse Comics. Created for Netflix by Steve Blackman and developed by Jeremy Slater, it revolves around a dysfunctional family of adopted sibling superheroes who reunite for their father's funeral and the threat of an imminent apocalypse. The series is produced by Borderline Entertainment (season 1–2), Irish Cowboy (season 3), Dark Horse Entertainment, and Universal Content Productions. Netflix gave seasons 1 and 2 a TV-14 rating, while seasons 3 and 4 received a TV-MA rating.
The cast features Elliot Page, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher, Cameron Britton, Mary J. Blige, John Magaro, Adam Godley, Colm Feore, Justin H. Min, Ritu Arya, Yusuf Gatewood, Marin Ireland, Kate Walsh, Genesis Rodriguez, and Britne Oldford. The adaptation began development as a film optioned by Universal Pictures in 2011. It was eventually shelved in favor of a television series in 2015, before being officially greenlit by Netflix in July 2017. The series was filmed in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario.
The first season was released on Netflix on February 15, 2019. In April 2019, Netflix reported that 45 million households had watched season one during its first month of release, thus becoming one of the most-streamed series of the year. The second and third seasons subsequently followed on July 31, 2020, and June 22, 2022, respectively. In August 2022, the series was renewed for a fourth and final season, which was released on August 8, 2024.
The first three seasons received positive reviews from critics, while the final season was met with a more mixed reception. The series has received a number of accolades, including six Emmy nominations.
The Umbrella Academy is set in a universe where 43 women around the world gave birth simultaneously at noon on October 1, 1989, although none had shown any sign of pregnancy until labor began. Seven of the children are adopted by eccentric billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves and turned into a superhero team that he calls "The Umbrella Academy." Hargreeves gives the children numbers rather than names, but their robot-mother, Grace, later names six of them: Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Ben, and Vanya. Reginald puts six of the children to work fighting crime but keeps Vanya apart from her siblings' activities, claiming she demonstrates no powers of her own.
The first season is set in the present day, where Luther is part ape and has lived on the Moon for four years, Allison is a famous actress, Vanya is a violinist, Klaus has a drug addiction, Five disappeared sixteen years earlier, Ben, now deceased, is a ghost able to converse only with Klaus, and Diego has become a vigilante. The estranged siblings learn that Reginald has died and gather for his funeral. Five returns from the future, revealing that a global apocalypse is imminent, but is chased by time-travelling Commission operatives Hazel and Cha-Cha. The reunited siblings try to uncover the secrets behind Reginald Hargreeves' life, and their dysfunctional relationships are strained. They band together to try to prevent the impending apocalypse.
The second season sees the siblings scattered in Dallas at different times in the early 1960s (as a result of the events of the first season), establishing lives for themselves. Five arrives there on November 25, 1963, minutes before a nuclear doomsday that is linked to JFK not being assassinated, but with the help of Hazel manages to travel back ten days. Five is hunted by a trio of Swedish assassins but finds his siblings, who have all made new lives, and attempts to reunite them in order to stop this new apocalypse.
In the third season the siblings realize their actions in the past created a new timeline and returning to 2019 is vastly different where they have been replaced by another Hargreeves superhero group adopted by Reginald, dubbed "The Sparrow Academy". They also have to find a way to stop a kugelblitz from consuming and destroying the universe created as a result of the grandfather paradox the siblings caused through their time-travel. They successfully reset the universe, while losing their powers in the process, and go their separate ways.
In the final season, the siblings reconnect with the goal of stopping the "Cleanse". They also regain their powers in the process, and some have augmented or completely different powers. At the end they eventually realize that the only way to save the timeline was to erase themselves in the process. They come to terms with this and let the Cleanse reset the timeline back to normal, effectively wiping the Umbrella Academy from ever existing.
A film version of the comic book series The Umbrella Academy was optioned by Universal Studios. Originally, screenwriter Mark Bomback was hired to write the screenplay; Rawson Marshall Thurber reportedly replaced him in 2010. There had been little talk of the film from that time. In an interview with Newsarama at the 2012 New York Comic Con, Gerard Way mentioned that there have been "good talks" and a "really good script", but that it was "kind of up to the universe".
On July 7, 2015, it was announced that The Umbrella Academy would be developed into a television series produced by Universal Cable Productions, rather than an original film. On July 11, 2017, it was officially announced that Netflix had greenlit a live-action series adaptation of The Umbrella Academy with Way and Gabriel Bá acting as executive producers, to premiere in 2019. The series was created by Steve Blackman, who served as showrunner. The pilot episode was written by series developer Jeremy Slater.
On April 2, 2019, the series was renewed for a ten-episode second season. It was also confirmed that the second season would consist of ten episodes, like the first season. The season release date remained unknown until May 18, 2020, when a teaser trailer concept was released where the main cast danced to "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tiffany. Steve Blackman confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that he wanted to stay close to the content of the comics. On June 26, 2020, it was revealed that the series would be taking place in the 1960s in Dallas, due to the time travel from the end of the previous season.
On November 10, 2020, Netflix renewed the series for a ten-episode third season. While the series initially had a "TV-14" rating for its first two seasons, the maturity rating was increased to "TV-MA" for its third season, mainly due to an increase in profanity.
In June 2022, Blackman revealed that, should the series get renewed for a fourth season, it would most likely serve as the end to the series, although he did not rule out the possibility of Netflix pursuing further installments. In August 2022, Netflix renewed the series for a fourth and final season, with Jesse McKeown serving as co-showrunner with Blackman. The season consists of six episodes, the fewest of any season.
In June 2022, it was revealed, according to series creator Steve Blackman, that the Season 3 scripts were complete when Elliot Page called him to share the news of his transition, with Blackman feeling it was "very important" that he and Page collaborate on incorporating Viktor's transition into the existing scripts. This led to Thomas Page McBee, an author and television writer who previously worked with Page on 2019's Tales of the City, being brought onboard as a writer/producer to ensure that the storyline where Viktor comes out as trans was handled with care and respect.
On November 9, 2017, Netflix confirmed that Elliot Page had joined the cast and that he would play Vanya Hargreeves (now Viktor Hargreeves), also known as the White Violin. On November 30, 2017, it was revealed that Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan and Aidan Gallagher had joined the cast as the rest of the Hargreeves siblings. On February 12, 2018, Netflix announced that Academy Award nominee Mary J. Blige would appear in the series as the sadistic time-travel assassin Cha-Cha. Colm Feore joined the cast as Sir Reginald Hargreeves, the adoptive father of the siblings, on February 16, 2018, alongside Cameron Britton, Adam Godley and Ashley Madekwe. On February 28, 2018, it was announced that John Magaro has been cast as a series regular character.
In January 2020, Justin H. Min and Kate Walsh were promoted to series regulars for the second season, following their recurring roles in the first season. On September 10, 2019, Netflix announced that three additional actors — Ritu Arya, Marin Ireland and Yusuf Gatewood — would join the cast. On October 17, 2019, John Kapelos announced that he would be joining the recurring cast as Jack Ruby, the man who killed Lee Harvey Oswald.
On January 11, 2021, it was announced that Justin Cornwell, Britne Oldford, Genesis Rodriguez, Cazzie David, and Jake Epstein joined the cast as part of the Sparrow Academy for the third season. In January 2022, Javon Walton revealed in an interview he joined the cast in an undisclosed role for the third season.
In February 2023, Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman, and David Cross joined the cast for the fourth season in undisclosed roles.
Principal photography for the first season began on January 15, 2018, in Toronto. Gerard Way's Instagram account shared an illustration by Fabio Moon of the cast and crew doing the first table read of the script in Toronto. Way also revealed a picture of the first day on the set. Additional filming took place in Hamilton, Ontario. The theatre scene of Vanya performing was filmed at the Elgin Theatre and the Winter Garden Theatre. Mazzoleni Concert Hall was used to represent the theatre's exterior. The exterior of the mansion was filmed at a building in Hamilton, while the interiors were filmed in studio. The Joey & Toby Tanenbaum Opera Centre was filmed for an outside scene and LIUNA Station was used for a bank robbery scene. A laboratory at the University of Toronto was filmed to represent the Meritech Prosthetics building. The filming concluded on July 18, 2018.
Filming for the second season began on June 16, 2019. Like the previous season, it was filmed in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario, despite the series taking place in Dallas, Texas. Exterior shots, including scenes in Dealey Plaza, were taken in Dallas. Filming concluded on November 23, 2019.
Filming for the third season began on February 7, 2021, and concluded on August 28, 2021.
Filming for the fourth season began on February 6, 2023, and concluded on May 31, 2023. Filming for the season was finished before the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike occurred.
Visual effects for the series are handled by SpinVFX, Weta Digital, Folks VFX, Soho VFX, Pixomondo, Deluxe VFX, Digital Film Tree, BOT VFX, Studio 8, Exceptional Minds and MARZ.
VFX supervisor Everet Burrell used traditional art techniques for early concept art and referenced great actors with iconic faces. Burrell called Weta Digital, who previously worked for the rebooted Planet of the Apes series, to develop the visual effects for the character of Pogo. Ken Hall provided the motion capture for Pogo using a gray suit to later make additions to his captures to create the CGI of the chimpanzee, with Adam Godley making the facial expressions and voice acting of the character.
SpinVFX confirmed that they delivered at least 563 shots for the series. To make the effects of the show, the team required a series of complex effect simulations, creature development, and massive destructions.
For the effects of Number Five jumping through time and space, Burrell wanted to make the effects look organic, and liquidy, representing how much time and the world bends around him when he jumps, and how quick it should be. For these effects, he used more than 30 frames in the first episodes, however with the progress of the series, this reduced to only 10 frames. To that footage, the team iterated on several kinds of spatial jump effects, all the way from heavy distortion to subtler images. The visual effects team started with some R&D tests. At the end, the final effect, called the "jelly vision", was used to make the series, with Burrell expressing: "as if you're pushing your hand through a jelly membrane, just for a few seconds, and then it pops. It's really, really subtle, but you get a little bit of texture, you get a little bit of striations, almost like the universe is bending as he does his spatial jumps."
In an interview with Burrell he confirmed that to develop the sequences where time is frozen, they took several background shots on location before returning to their stage to shoot the dialogue between Five and The Handler in front of a green screen. They called this effect "Three-Strip" in honor of the Technicolor process used in the 1930s.
The second season used 400 shots from the Folks VFX Montreal team under the guidance of VFX supervisor Laurent Spillemaecker to create time portal effects seen throughout the season, particularly Five's special ability. Meanwhile, Spillemaecker's crew recreated events surrounding JFK's fateful Dallas visit, while including The Umbrella Academy's superpower interactions. Pictures and references from the 1960s were provided to create and later to be used as digital matte paintings and CG environments, to transform Canada into the show's setting, 1960s Dallas.
The opening scene of the second season, where the siblings fight the Soviets on a Dallas street, was the most complicated to do, being nearly completely CGI. It was realized on a 360 degree bluescreen backlot set which was 15 feet tall and 200 feet by 60 feet. The only real things that were not made of CGI, were the tank, soldiers, cast and the rubble on the ground. The set was LiDAR scanned so that the director, Sylvian White could walk around using a VR edition of the iPad. They used a Phantom running at 700 frames per second on a camera stick. The scene was also divided in seven parts, beginning with Number Five's arrival at 1963, and concluding before Diego's first lines. For safety reasons the crew could not fire the AK-47s at Diego so they were forced to do multiple passes.
The show's score albums were released for seasons 1 and 2. Jeff Russo was hired to compose the show's score. During an interview he revealed that he "needed to use a subtle hand with the score" and that they "wanted the score to be thematic, by not trying to push too much on the weird and too much on the horrific aspect of the show and the story".
On April 16, 2019, Netflix announced that the series had been streamed by over 45 million viewers on its service within its first month of release, with people at least having watched 70% percent of one episode of the series. It was the third most popular TV series on Netflix in 2019. On September 3, 2020, Netflix revealed the show broke numerous records in viewerships, following the second season debut. During the second season first week, the show was the most watched television series show on Netflix, being atop of the Nielsen ratings and thus confirming that 3 billion minutes of the show's two seasons were viewed. On October 21, 2020, Netflix published the Nielsen ratings and revealed that the show's second season was streamed by over 43 million viewers in its first 28 days. It made it the 6th most watched show of that year, falling behind shows like The Queen's Gambit and Ratched.
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 77% of 94 critic reviews are positive for the first season, with an average rating of 7.2/10. Critics' consensus on the website reads, "The Umbrella Academy unfurls an imaginative yarn with furtive emotion and an exceptionally compelling ensemble, but the series' dour sensibility often clashes with its splashy genre trappings." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the season a score of 61 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
For the second season, Rotten Tomatoes identified 91% of 89 reviews as positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's critics consensus states, "Proof that time can heal almost all wounds, The Umbrella Academy's exhilarating second season lightens its tonal load without losing its emotional core, giving the super siblings room to grow while doubling down on the time traveling fun." The season garnered a weighted average score of 67 out of 100 from 12 critics on Metacritic, signifying "generally favorable reviews".
For the third season, Rotten Tomatoes reported a 91% approval rating with an average rating of 7.6/10, based on 57 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "The Umbrella Academy unfurls a bit beyond a manageable scope in this overstuffed season, but there remains all the gonzo creativity and resonant character relationships that fans enroll for." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 74 out of 100 based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
The fourth season holds an approval rating of 55% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 38 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The website's critics consensus states, "Getting the band back together for one last haphazard race to the finish, The Umbrella Academy's fourth season rains on the series' parade a bit while still offering some sweet grace notes. On Metacritic, the fourth season received a score of 59 based on reviews from 11 critics, signifying "mixed or average reviews".