Month: July 2020

Lila’s introduction opened a whole world of possibility for the Umbrella Academy universe. In total, 43 mystery children were born on October 1, 1989, to women who were not actually pregnant and so far, only 8 of them, including Lila, have been uncovered. We want to know more of Lila’s story, see her actually connect with the rest of the time, and hopefully, usher in a whole new quest for the Hargreeves kids to find more people like themselves.

Ben’s cliffhanger ending was a huge question mark for the finale. Ghost Ben is no longer, but now there’s a new Ben in 2019 and he doesn’t recognize any of his former siblings. We obviously want to know why this is happening–did the fact that Ben’s ghost moved on back in the 1960s change something? Or was it one of the other little disruptions that shifted everything around? But more importantly, we want to see more Ben just in general, especially when it comes to his powers.

In the comics, Ben is known as The Horror and his abilities have to do with summoning eldritch beings into existence through his skin–but we never get much in terms of specifics or logistics since he’s already dead by the time the story begins. In the show, we’ve only seen Ben’s powers manifest as tentacles sprouting from his chest. We’re dying to see what else he can do–and actor Justin H. is, too.

In speaking with GameSpot, he admitted Ben’s powers are something he’s excited to explore. “I’ve thought about it a lot, especially as all the other siblings’ powers continue to evolve and grow, I’m so curious to see how Ben’s will continue to evolve and grow as well.” He continued, “I mean, the tentacles is a primary way in which these interdimensional beings manifest themselves from its body, but I don’t necessarily think that it’s limited to that, per se. And I think other types of monsters, creatures, interdimensional beings, will be able to manifest themselves in the future.”

Here’s hoping.

In the new 2019, there is no Umbrella Academy. Instead, Reginald is still alive and has what’s known as The Sparrow Academy, led by this alternate version of Ben. This is totally uncharted territory for the story. The Sparrow Academy isn’t directly based off of anything in the comics, so we can’t even begin to guess what might be going on, which means we’re absolutely dying to know what the deal is.

Is it just us or did Sparrow Academy Ben have an extremely threatening vibe?

Perhaps one of the strangest unresolved stories in Season 2 is the blink-and-you-miss-it reveal that Sir Reginald Hargreeves is, in fact, an alien–and not like, a Kryptonian-style humanoid alien, like Season 1 had implied. This version was a full-on monster. This wouldn’t be a huge surprise for fans coming from the comics, where Reginald’s alien origins were revealed relatively early on. But, given how much the show is able to deviate and do new things apart from the source material, we’re betting it’s not going to be a direct adaptation of Reginald’s story from the books.

So, we need to know, what is Reginald’s deal? Will the siblings ever learn the truth? If he’s an alien in this version of events, does that mean there could be more aliens out there?

Though considerably less ominous than the Sparrow Academy and the whole alternate 2019, the stinger with Harlan and Sissy back in the 1960s does raise some red flags. Harlan now has to deal with the abilities Vanya inadvertently gave him, and he’s doing so with absolutely no help, in a world that already doesn’t understand him.

Showrunner Steve Blackman spoke with GameSpot about the origins and potential future for Harlan’s story. “He’s a kid who is on the autism spectrum–I have a son on the spectrum. So it’s something close to my heart. I wanted to have a character that bonded with Vanya, without having verbal communication, that there was another kind of connection with them. And then I wanted to take it to the next level, where the connection became even much more dramatic because it was connected by her inadvertently giving some of her power to him, and him not understanding or not being able to voice that.”

He continued, “And then we locked in the element at the end where we are to wonder what happens next. Clearly he still has some abilities and hopefully there’s something there we may or may not address in Season 3, if we are lucky to get it.”

Klaus’s struggles with drugs and alcohol came to a head back in Season 1 after his traumatic experience in Vietnam, but Season 2 saw him completely fall off the wagon once more. Both instances were directly related to his doomed love affair with Dave–but actor Robert Sheehan doesn’t believe Klaus’s road to recovery will be linear, nor will it be a simple instance of love conquering all.

“I think he’s probably always going to be battling with drugs now,” Sheehan told GameSpot. “I have friends in my life and they function, they’ve got great jobs, some of them, but they battle on a daily basis whether or not they’re going to take drugs. It’s a tough thing and I think it points to something more deeply ingrained. But I suppose love is a great, probably a great cleanser of those things, a great helper because ultimately you start living for someone else or something else. You start to put something else bigger than yourself.”

Vanya has always been on the outskirts of the Hargreeves family thanks to Reginald’s deliberate attempts to ostracize and alienate her, but at the end of Season 2 we finally see her start to really join the fold. We want to see this trend continue with Vanya becoming more and more a part of the team, connecting with her siblings, and fostering meaningful relationships with them as they move forward.

We’d also like to see Vanya continuing to explore her sexuality, which was one of the new elements introduced in Season 2 with her romance with Sissy. Steve Blackman said that Vanya’s sexuality was something he and actor Ellen Page spoke at length about. “I would talk with Ellen Page about telling really honest stories about what it is to be queer. And that’s why that story was very grounded. […] We want to tell all kinds of love stories. And I don’t want to put any limits on it, as we go forward in future seasons.”

Klaus’s cult, Destiny’s Children, may have felt like a running gag throughout the season–and, let’s be honest, it mostly was–but we’d still like to see some genuine consequences spin out of that debacle in the future, especially considering the last remaining Swede apparently joined them.

It could be a continued gag–after all, the timeline would probably be a little bit screwed up for pop culture considering Klaus was spouting off Backstreet Boys and TLC lyrics decades before either band was actually performing those songs–or it could be something much more serious. Who knows, maybe the entire Sparrow Academy situation happened because Klaus really screwed up the landscape of modern pop music.

Perhaps more than any of their individual powers or dysfunctional quirks, the Hargreeves family is defined by their complete inability to find meaningful connections with other people. Allison has arguably gotten the closest with not one but two marriages, but something always gets in the way, whether it’s self sabotage and secret keeping or the sci-fi wackiness and drama of time travel. The Hargreeves siblings seem to be doomed to never find love.

But that might not be the case forever. Blackman explained that, though their emotional ineptitude and shortcomings are major parts of their characters, he doesn’t think happiness is totally off the table in the future. “I would love for one of them to have a successful relationship. I think it is earned. I think it is time,” He said. “I think Sissy and Vanya were about a successful relationship, if not for one having to return to her time period. I think they would have had a lovely romance, lasting for years to come. The same with Klaus and Dave, but their circumstances were so much more complicated. So I do not think it is inherent in the Umbrella Academy, to have not that successful romances, I think it is just that so much gets in the way.”

One of the weirdest hallmarks of the Umbrella Academy comics series is its penchant for the heroes to be put up against sentient monuments and landmarks. In the first series, Apocalypse Suite, the kids were made to fight the Eiffel Tower–piloted by a version of Gustauve Eiffel who was both a zombie and a robot.

Later, in Umbrella Academy: Dallas, they have to fight the Lincoln Memorial after it came to life.

According to Steve Blackman, pulling off a fight like that in live action is a dream of his. “I do love the fight in Eiffel Tower in the very beginning with the kids, the Eiffel Tower is such a great visual. It would be sort of needing a lot of money to pull it off,” he laughed. “I still feel so inspired by that material. I would love to bring something like that life. I don’t know if I ever could, but that would be fun to try.”