[Music]
while you might know quite a bit about
the hargreaves family and their past and
future foes
there's still plenty left to uncover
from waze creative process to some
behind the scenes drama
here's the untold truth of the umbrella
academy
when comic creator gerard way first came
up with the idea for the umbrella
academy his primary focus in life
wasn't on writing a story about a
dysfunctional family of superhero
outcasts
instead he was deeply entrenched in his
music career
in 2006 my chemical romance the rock
band that touched the lives of an entire
generation of emo kids
had just released the black parade the
follow-up album to their 2004 hit
three cheers for sweet revenge way spent
a huge amount of his time in cramped
touring quarters with
his bandmates who he told nme helped
shape the personalities of the
hargreaves characters
he explained being in a band at really
close quarters
as anyone who's had that experience will
tell you is like being in a
dysfunctional family
the chemistry of that is really
interesting to me i can see the guys
from the band in each of the characters
that makes no sense well what if you
were smarter
more so way found himself using the
comic as a means to sift through his
entire
experience with the band from the people
he came into contact with along the way
to the fame itself like wei and his
bandmates the hargreaves are a sort of
self-formed family
and like the band they struggle with
their own family issues
he said a lot of that was my way of
processing the experience my chemical
romance had if i'm
being totally honest three comic volumes
and a tv series into the umbrella
academy and it's difficult to imagine
the hargreaves siblings as being
anything other than adopted family
members i guess i'll see you guys in
what 10 years
when pogo dies not if you die first yeah
love you too sis everything about them
reads like a dysfunctional family
from their sometimes eagerness to please
their father to their fierce sibling
rivalry
but it wasn't until gerard way was well
into writing
that he decided to actually make them
related in some form or fashion
he told vulture that when he first
created them they were just this
collection of weirdos
had the hargreaves only been a
collection of weirdos the likelihood of
the comic going on to be
as successful as it's become is probably
pretty remote
one of the greatest aspects of the
umbrella academy is that it feels much
more like a family trauma
set in a superhero setting than it does
a superhero story with the family drama
sideblock
readers and now viewers are tuning in to
see what the hargreaves will do to
and for each other taking down a giant
killer spaceship and the guys of the
eiffel tower
is just an added bonus one of the big
story elements of the show
is the will they won't they back and
forth between adopted siblings
luther and allison throughout the first
season of the series it's made clear
that the pair have feelings for each
other that stem beyond the familial and
by season one's
sixth episode the day that wasn't
they're finally able to share their
first
on-screen kiss for some the relationship
feels in a word
gross and gerard wait gets that he told
the hollywood reporter that when he
first wrote the comic in his 20s he
didn't see much of a problem with it
but said but now that i'm 40 i'm like
yeah but they still grew up together
that's kind of [ __ ] up as it happens
the romance between
space boy and the rumor may not be the
only one that tows the line of social
acceptability
in the umbrella academy comic vania and
diego have their own connection as well
not long after dark horse published the
first volume of the umbrella academy in
2008
universal pictures picked up the rights
to the project at the same time the
comic was only the second dark horse
property to have been purchased by the
studio
the first was ripd which wasn't exactly
a success the umbrella academy movie sat
in development limbo for a number of
years which included a rider change in
2011
before universal finally decided to let
its option expire
sorry liar drop ten low blow
gerard way explained to enemy that once
the movie was out
he teamed up with jeremy slater who
wrote the pilot for the tv series
and helped shop it to several networks
in 2017 netflix picked up the rights and
a year later we got the small screen
version of the hargreaves family
according to wei the series wound up
being a better option for the material
anyway
had universal gone ahead with the film
it would have been the quote
first post-modern superhero movie which
he didn't think audiences were quite
ready for at the time
if the umbrella academy feels more like
an extended film than a tv series
there's a reason
and it has nothing to do with the fact
that the project spent so much time and
development as a feature at universal
and everything to do with showrunner
steve blackman's background
prior to taking over the netflix series
blackman worked on
altered carbon a huge sci-fi original on
the platform
like altered carbon the umbrella academy
borrows much of its visual style from
the film
and they're the only two tv series that
are shot on alexa 65
a large format digital camera blackman
told the los angeles times that the
show's visual aesthetic
is in large part due to the camera
itself explaining
it's a film camera but it's beautiful
and cinematic so it really gives you the
sort of almost
anamorphic look we're not quite
letterbox but we have that style
with a group of misfit superheroes at
its core it would be easy to lump the
umbrella academy in with any number of
comic based action pieces
which could perhaps be traced back to
steve blackman's prior work on legion
the umbrella academy walks a strange
line between stylized science fiction
hyper violence and overall
ridiculousness but it works
the hell is he doing here go faster
according to ellen page however the
show's visual style was actually
influenced more by
a few directors who've had zero
experience in the superhero realm
in an interview with vanity fair paige
explained that the umbrella academy took
many of its cues from herald and mod
director hal ashby
as well as wes anderson their influence
is clear particularly in terms of the
relationships between the hargreaves
siblings
while clearly dysfunctional there's an
obvious affection among them
however dry that affection may sometimes
come across
this family is amazing
although the trauma of being raised by
an unloving adoptive father whose only
interest ever seemed to be in exploiting
his children's superpowers takes its
toll on
every one of the hargreaves children
it's especially damaging to bonya
it's because of her strained
relationship with both her father and
her siblings that she eventually
heads down the path toward super
villainy culminating in her becoming the
white violin
and setting the apocalypse into motion
at the end of season one
while the character's arc in the comic
is a little more straightforward on the
show
vanya's slow descent into eventual
madness is laid out meticulously
i'm afraid there's just nothing special
about you
steve blackman told the hollywood
reporter that a big part of the series
for him was focusing on the
psychological effects of childhood
trauma
vania's particular arc came about on
account of paige's desire to give her a
quote grounded transformation it also
serves as an explanation for her
on-screen relationship with leonard
who's kind of the textbook definition of
an emotional abuser
while blackman admits that given more
time vanya
probably would have seen the
relationship red flags she was already
so damaged that leonard is able to
manipulate her more easily
one of the most notable changes and
biggest improvements between the comic
and the series
is in terms of cast diversity steve
blackman explained to the hollywood
reporter that representation was
important to the series crew
so when it came down to casting the show
they made some changes and one of the
biggest ones was with cha-cha who got
the gender swap treatment for the series
and is played by mary j blige but
getting obliged wouldn't be easy
or at least that's what blackman assumed
when her name was first dropped in a
casting meeting
turns out all it really required was the
promise of her own stunt work
recounting his conversation about bleich
he told vulture
they go yeah she wants to be an assassin
she wants to throw punches and kick and
shoot
so i got on the phone with mary and
she's like if you let me punch and shoot
and do my stunts
i'm in for her part oblige has been a
big fan of playing an assassin
the musician actress told the los
angeles times that she loves the stunts
saying i always wanted to learn how to
shoot a gun i know how to shoot all
types of guns now
and i know martial arts netflix's the
umbrella academy may exist
in a slightly more grounded world than
its comic counterpart but there are
certain things that point to the fact
that it's
at least set in a reality not quite our
own
steve blackman told slash film that the
show's lack of technology is one of
those nods to the comics
jfk timeline origins wherein the former
president
actually survives that fateful 1963 day
in dallas
and while allison's use of microfiche is
a pretty cool easter egg
there's one huge technological
advancement that's completely missing
from the series
cell phones hey hey excuse me sorry to
bother you
could you tell me what year this is what
day
in a cast interview with screen rant
both ellen page and robert sheehan
expressed their appreciation for the
show's
lack of cellular technology sheehan said
you know you're offered a respite from a
world where it's completely governed and
obsessed by smartphones
it's a new way humans don't communicate
the way they once did
anymore the soundtrack for the umbrella
academy may be just as eclectic as the
series characters themselves
from tiffany's i think we're alone now
and nina simone's
cinnamon to radiohead's exit music for a
film
the show has no shortage of varied and
interesting music
but varied and interesting as it is it's
still a little too mainstream in the
eyes of gerard way
the comic creator told enemy that
although music played a huge role in how
he approached the overall feel of the
book
specifically teenage fan club the pixies
and smashing pumpkins
when it came to the show he didn't have
much to say over what went into the
soundtrack
that was left to steve blackman as way
explains it steve came to it with a
pretty clear idea of the music he wanted
to use
it's ways hope however that they can use
the success of the show in its second
season to introduce audiences to music
that he refers to as
quote more left of center stuff he told
the publication
i'd always pick a song by a band like
wire or gang of four over the sort of
stuff steve does
although i think he's incredible at
using songs you've heard before in
really interesting ways
the umbrella academy comic had been a
work in progress for over a decade by
the time netflix aired its first season
but as of 2020
only its first three volumes had been
released apocalypse suite in 2007
and 2008 dallas in 2008 and hotel
oblivion in 2018 and 2019.
plans for a fourth volume titled sparrow
academy have been announced
but no rollout date has been set
according to gerard way
he's planned for eight volumes total
which means that hopefully
netflix will follow suit with an
eight-season run wade told the hollywood
reporter
stephen blackman knows what happens in
all of those eight volumes
i wrote up this document for him and the
writers which explains what will happen
through all the graphic novels
i'm sorry am i the only one that's
skeptical here
i mean how exactly do you know all of
this about what's his name
but though the story has been mapped out
for the comic you shouldn't expect to
see everything translate exactly from
the page onto the screen
according to blackman their goal with
the show is to keep close to what's
happening in the comic
but when it comes down to it some things
just aren't going to work on screen
luckily series creators are able to use
waze outline to plant
future plot lines early on so things
will come together further into the
umbrella academy's seasons
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