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Netflix casts five new characters for upcoming ‘Umbrella Academy’

By Shawn Lealos

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There are a lot of TV shows these days based on superheroes, and a new one called Umbrella Academy is adding is coming to Netflix.

Like many of the other shows, including the Marvel efforts on Netflix, Umbrella Academy is based on a comic book. This is an Eisner award-winning comic book by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá from 2007.

Umbrella Academy Comics

The book is an interesting tale (not based in Marvel or DC Comics) about a dysfunctional family of superheroes that goes by the name Umbrella Academy. The family split up before the books started, and this story picks up later when their father dies.

The family members all band back together to solve the mystery of their dad’s death. However, the real story is how these heroes – Klaus, Allison, Vanya, Diego, Luther and Number Five – can’t get along and their personalities threaten to shatter the team before they can find out what happened to their father.

Dark Horse Comics published this series as a six-issue miniseries in 2007 and then had a follow-up series in 2008 called The Umbrella Academy: Dallas.

The synopsis for the first mini-series, in which the Netflix series is based, reads as follows:

"In an inexplicable worldwide event, forty-seven extraordinary children were spontaneously born to women who’d previously shown no signs of pregnancy. Millionaire inventor Reginald Hargreeves adopted seven of the children; when asked why, his only explanation was, “To save the world.”These seven children form the Umbrella Academy, a dysfunctional family of superheroes with bizarre powers. Their first adventure at the age of ten pits them against an erratic and deadly Eiffel Tower, piloted by the fearsome zombie-robot Gustave Eiffel. Nearly a decade later, the team disbands, but when Hargreeves unexpectedly dies, these disgruntled siblings reunite just in time to save the world once again."

The Umbrella Academy Netflix Series

While Universal Studios circled Umbrella Academy for a movie, it ended up going to Netflix, who greenlit it as a live-action series. Comic book creator Gerard Way is serving as the executive producer for the series.

There was already news earlier in November that Umbrella Academy picked up a significant star in Ellen Page to star as Vanya, who had no superpowers and was known as White Violin. Now, the rest of the kids have been cast.

More from Show Snob

  • Tom Hopper (Game of Thrones) will star as Luther (Spaceboy), the leader of the team who had his head transmitted to the body of a Martian gorilla and who has super strength.
  • Emmy Raver-Lampman (Hamilton) stars as Allison (The Rumor), a hero who can alter reality by telling a lie.
  • David Castañeda (End of Watch) stars as Diego (The Kraken), whose power involves holding his breath as long as he wants and is good at throwing knives.
  • Robert Sheehan (Misfits) stars as Klaus (The Seance), who can levitate, has telekinesis and can talk to the dead.
  • Aidan Gallagher (Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn) stars as Number Five, a character who traveled 50 years into the future and back again and whose body can no longer age (he is 10), he knows the future and is an expert assassin with a 100-percent kill success rate.

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Netflix is hoping to have a hit on their hands with Umbrella Academy since Marvel will move any new properties to the upcoming Disney streaming network in 2019 and Netflix will have to find other properties to go along with their Mark Millar created comic book adaptations.

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