The Umbrella Academy is a comic book series created and written by Gerard Way and illustrated by Gabriel Bá. It was adapted into a television series on Netflix, with three ten-episode seasons and a final six-episode season.
The Umbrella Academy features seven super-powered children: Luther Hargreeves, who has super-strength and durability; Diego Hargreeves, who has trajectory manipulation allowing him to control projectiles; Allison Hargreeves, who can influence people to her command with the phrase "I heard a rumor...", followed by what she wants to happen; Klaus Hargreeves, who can communicate with and summon the dead; Five Hargreeves, who can teleport and time-travel; Ben Hargreeves, who can summon monstrous tentacles from his torso; and Vanya Hargreeves (later Viktor Hargreeves in the television adaptation) who can control sound waves. All the children were adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves, and transformed into the superhero team called "the Umbrella Academy".
Overview
Character Portrayed by Appearances Main characters Vanya Hargreeves / Viktor Hargreeves / The White Violin / Umbrella Number Seven Elliot Page colspan="4" Luther Hargreeves / Spaceboy / Umbrella Number One Tom Hopper colspan="4" Diego Hargreeves / The Kraken / Umbrella Number Two David Castañeda colspan="4" Allison Hargreeves / The Rumor /Umbrella Number Three Emmy Raver-Lampman colspan="4" Klaus Hargreeves / The Séance / Umbrella Number Four Robert Sheehan colspan="4" Five Hargreeves / The Boy / Umbrella Number Five Aidan Gallagher colspan="4" Cha-Cha Mary J. Blige colspan="2" Hazel Cameron Britton Leonard Peabody / Harold Jenkins John Magaro colspan="3" Pogo Adam Godley colspan="3" Sir Reginald Hargreeves / The Monocle Colm Feore colspan="4" Ben Hargreeves / The Horror / Umbrella Number Six Justin H. Min Ben Hargreeves / Sparrow Number Two colspan="3" Lila Pitts Ritu Arya colspan="3" Raymond Chestnut Yusuf Gatewood Sissy Cooper / Dana Pocket Marin Ireland The Handler Kate Walsh Sloane Hargreeves / Sparrow Number Five Genesis Rodriguez Fei Hargreeves / Sparrow Number Three Britne Oldford Recurring characters Agnes Rofa Sheila McCarthy colspan="2" Grace Hargreeves / Mom Jordan Claire Robbins colspan="3" Syd Murray Furrow colspan="3" Detective Eudora Patch Ashley Madekwe colspan="3" Detective Chuck Beaman Rainbow Sun Francks colspan="3" Lance Biggs Zachary Bennett colspan="3" The Conductor Peter Outerbridge colspan="3" David "Dave" J. Katz Cody Ray Thompson colspan="3" Calem MacDonald colspan="2" Elliott Kevin Rankin colspan="2" Axel Kris Holden-Ried Jack Ruby John Kapelos colspan="2" Carl Cooper Stephen Bogaert colspan="2" Odessa Raven Dauda colspan="2" Miles Dewshane Williams colspan="2" Otto Jason Bryden Oscar Tom Sinclair Harlan Cooper / Lester Pocket Justin Paul Kelly Callum Keith Rennie colspan="2" Hoyt Hillenkoetter Robert Verlaque colspan="2" Keechie Dov Tiefenbach colspan="2" Dot Patrice Goodman colspan="2" Herb Ken Hall colspan="2" A.J. Carmichael Robin Atkin Downes colspan="2" Jill Mouna Traoré colspan="2" Mr. Edelman Peter Schoelier colspan="2" Alphonso Hargreeves / Sparrow Number Four Jake Epstein Jayme Hargreeves / Sparrow Number Six Cazzie David Stanley "Stan" Javon "Wanna" Walton colspan="2" Chet Rodo Julian Richings colspan="2" Sy Grossman David Cross colspan="3" Dr. Gene Thibodeau Nick Offerman colspan="3" Dr. Jean Thibodeau Megan Mullally colspan="3" Claire Hargreeves Coco Assad Millie Davis colspan="3" CIA Deputy Director Lance Ribbons Martin Roach colspan="3" Derek Zack Binder colspan="3" Jennifer / Rosie Victoria Sawal colspan="3" Abigail Hargreeves Liisa Repo-Martell Quinn George Tchortov colspan="3" Bea Jessica Greco colspan="3"
The Umbrella Academy Sir Reginald Hargreeves
Sir Reginald Hargreeves, also known as The Monocle, is an alien disguised as a wealthy entrepreneur and world-renowned scientist. He received the Nobel Prize for his work in the cerebral advancement of the chimpanzee and founded the Umbrella Academy, a group of adopted super-powered children. Sir Reginald is cold-hearted, often mistreating and even experimenting on the children for his personal interests. He refuses to let the children call him father, demanding that they address him by his codename The Monocle instead. When speaking to the children, he refers to them by number, which was assigned to the children in terms of "usefulness", and has nothing to do with their actual destructive capabilities.
In the television series, Reginald is portrayed by Colm Feore and appears in all four seasons in a main role. Feore joined the series in February 2018. He is revealed in the first season finale to be an alien from another planet who came to Earth following the death of his wife and the destruction of his home planet. Before leaving, he unleashed a jar of golden particles (largely implied to be the "marigolds" that brought the 43 children into existence). Upon arriving to Earth, he created an umbrella manufacturing company and became a billionaire entrepreneur. In 1920, he completed construction of the Hotel Obsidian, which he intentionally built near an alternate dimension that would supposedly rewrite the world. He sent a group of soldiers to eliminate the guardians of the alternate universe, but they were all slaughtered and Reginald presumably gave up on the mission.
In the first episode of the series, he kills himself (a fact that is not revealed until later in the season) to reunite the children for his funeral and stop the apocalypse. He appears in the second season as a younger version of himself who works for the Majestic 12. In the sixth episode, he meets with his children at a tropical bar as they ask them for help in stopping the apocalypse and, while taunting them, gives Five advice on controlling his powers (which he uses to reverse time in the season finale). Later in the season, Reginald reveals his alien persona and kills the Majestic 12.
The third season reveals that following the meeting at the tropical bar with the Umbrella siblings, he chose to adopt a new set of children in 1989, dubbing them The Sparrow Academy, who have ousted the Umbrellas in the present. He is also significantly different from his original counterpart, having been sedated for years by his children, following a disagreement in 2014 with an alternate Pogo which led to his assistant leaving and bestowing the pills to the Sparrows. He is soon taken off these pills by Klaus, and regains his abrasive personality and goals: specifically, his ambition to take his children to the alternate dimension in the Hotel Obsidian (dubbed Hotel Oblivion). He also helps Klaus expand his powers and discover his immortality, using the time with his son to manipulate him to his side. Following the expansion of the Kugelblitz, Reginald proposes to the Umbrellas and Sparrows an idea to head to Hotel Oblivion, recounting a mythic tale that suggests seven bells and a sigil that will allow someone to rewrite the universe. When the Umbrellas and Sparrows vote to remain in the original universe and await the apocalypse, Reginald kills Luther and uses the opportunity to take everyone to Oblivion to complete his mission. It is also revealed that, despite seemingly having no reason to do so, he did in fact send Luther to the moon for a purpose: to guard Reginald’s deceased wife who has been conserved in a cryogenic chamber in space. When it is discovered that Reginald’s children were the people meant to represent the seven bells (in a process that would drain their powers and kill them), Allison kills Reginald and resets the universe. This new universe shows that Reginald has gained control over the city, and his wife has mysteriously been resurrected.
Luther Hargreeves
Luther Hargreeves, also known as Number One or his superhero alter-ego Spaceboy, is the primary and longest-lasting member of the Umbrella Academy. Luther's principal powers are super-strength and durability. He is portrayed by Tom Hopper as an adult and Cameron Brodeur as a teenager in the television adaptation.
After a disastrous mission, Sir Reginald Hargreeves performed surgery on Luther, replacing his body with that of a Martian gorilla, hinted to be the same that damaged his original body. Luther is then sent into the moon for four years and returns following the death of his father. In the comics, he has been shown to have somewhat of a love interest in Number Three, Allison.
In the television adaptation, Luther still retains his ape-like figure and moon backstory, the main difference being that, rather than surgically replacing his body, Reginald injected a gorilla serum into Luther to save his life, turning him into a human-ape hybrid with hairy legs, wrinkly gray skin on his arms and a slightly hairy torso. His body can withstand the vacuum and cold of space as long as he has a helmet on. Using his super strength, he primarily fights hand-to-hand. After his career with The Umbrella Academy, he moved to the moon, in a mission secretly meant to guard Reginald's wife Abigail in cryogenesis. The adaptation also keeps the relationship between Luther and his adopted sister Allison.
The A.V. Club highlighted that in the first season of the television adaptation, Luther immediately starts investigating Reginald's death. In the process, he discovers that Reginald ignored him the entire time he was on the moon, leading him to believe it was a pointless mission, sending Luther into a depressive episode. He also supports Number Five in trying to avert the "apocalypse; when it becomes clear that Vanya and her previously unknown powers are to blame, Luther locks her up. This drives Vanya to give in to her destructive abilities and go on a rampage that ends up causing the apocalypse, but by the time moon debris is actually falling on the planet, Luther recognizes how he hurt Vanya and agrees to bring her with as his siblings decide to go back in time and take another swing at saving the world". In the second season, during the 1960s in Dallas, Luther begins to work for Jack Ruby as a club security guard and as an underground fighter. In the comic’s Dallas storyline, Luther became morbidly obese as part of his struggle with depression. While Luther overeats in the second season, the television adaptation creators decided to avoid the obesity plot after a similar transformation occurred to Thor in Avengers: Endgame. He also begins to get over his relationship with Allison after discovering that she married a man named Raymond Chestnut.