With a cast as fun and diverse as that of The Umbrella Academy, there are countless entertaining behind-the-scenes facts about the making of the show. Based on the comic books by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, The Umbrella Academy season one premiered on Netflix in early 2019. Season two was released in 2020, with the crew finishing production during the pandemic lockdown. After COVID-19 related delays, Netflix is currently in production of the third season.
The cast, creators, and crew have done many interviews throughout lockdown, revealing behind-the-scenes info and inspiration for both the comics and the show. Hopefully, season three will premiere later this year, but until then, viewers have lots of content from the first two seasons to keep them occupied.
Luther Was The First Character
Umbrella Academy writer and My Chemical Romance lead singer, Gerard Way, first drew the character who would become Luther Hargreeves while on tour with his band in Japan. Inspired by a picture Way had seen of a creature from an old sci-fi movie, he drew the half-simian astronaut, "Number One."
In the end, it was Gabriel Bá who would bring Way's vision of the Academy to life as the artist of the published comics. Tom Hopper, who plays Luther, was also the first Hargreeves sibling to be cast in the show.
The Umbrella Academy Could Have Been A Movie First
The comic book series that The Umbrella Academy is based on was released to extremely positive reviews in 2007. It won an Eisner Award, "which is like the Oscars for comic books." Gerard Way was offered the possibility of making the series into a movie by Universal, but that wasn't his original intention. Years later, Gerard Way was open to the idea of a TV adaption after hearing the vision of future Umbrella Academy showrunner and executive producer, Steve Blackman.
There Is Not A "Clean Take" Of The Elevator Scene
The scene in season two where all of the Hargreeves siblings pile into an elevator on the way to meet their father and Luther farts was not originally scripted. Tom Hopper broke wind while they were doing the take and everyone tried to react in character at first, but the other siblings broke when Robert Sheehan (Klaus) responded with, "Luther, that smells amazing." They kept the scene, however, and filmed the cast's reactions again, but viewers can still see David Castañeda (Diego) laughing silently in the background in the episode.
Most Of The "Dallas" Scenes Were Filmed In Ontario, Canada
The set crew of The Umbrella Academy had to hijack two city blocks of the town of Hamilton in Ontario, Canada to remake it into 1950s Dallas, Texas, filling it up with fifties style cars and people. The crew even had to repaint the fire hydrants to match the style of fire hydrants in the fifties and then fix them each night when they were finished filming for the day.
Eighty percent of season two was shot in Canada, but the opening scene of season two of the "Battle of Dallas" was filmed in front of greenscreens and the visual effects team recreated the main street of Hamilton digitally. The scenes from the grassy knoll were actually filmed in Texas.
The Cornfield
The cornfield in episode three of The Umbrella Academy season two was specially created for the show. The corn was only about a foot high a month before shooting of the season started and the crew was worried it wouldn't be tall enough in time for filming. However, the corn grew to the right height in time to film the scene where Vanya runs through the cornfield from the Swedes, makes a crop circle after blasting them with her powers, and then encounters Number Five.
Season Two's Instrumental Music Was Recorded During Lockdown
Steve Blackman, the showrunner and executive producer, says the music of the show is one of Umbrella Academy's most important elements. Normally, the music creators and musicians for The Umbrella Academy would have an entire thirty-person orchestra in one room to record songs for the show, but due to the pandemic, each musician had to record their piece of music separately.
The different audio files for the one hundred and seventy plus instrumental songs in season two then had to be edited together using a synthesizer. Gerard Way, musician, and Umbrella Academy creator, also wrote an original song, "Here Comes the End," when the show first started filming that appears in the season two trailer.
"Snowmageddon"
The snow in the season two finale had to be written into the farm scene after "winter came early." The show had hired meteorologists to be on the crew and help them prepare for weather conditions when filming outdoors, but everyone was taken off guard when they left the farm location and showed up the next day to find four feet of snow on their set. The producers didn't have the time or budget to wait for the snow to melt, so they adapted the scene by writing the so-called "Snowmageddon" in and having the cast work around it to the best of their ability. Unfortunately, this led to Tom Hopper pulling a hamstring after slipping in the snow.
The Handler Wasn't Originally Going To Be A Woman
The Handler is a character unique to The Umbrella Academy show. The Handler was originally intended to be played by John Hamm, but when he turned down the role, Steve Blackman called Kate Walsh and offered it to her.
It's a good thing, too, because Blackman gave Walsh creative liberties to mold the character the way she wanted. Walsh got to work with the costume department to come up with the Handler's memorable and extravagant dress and hairstyles.
Most Of The Cast Agrees...
Most of the cast agrees that David Castañeda is the worst secret keeper of the group. David Castañeda's character, Diego Hargreeves, likes to play his cards close to his chest, with good reason, too, as the people he trusts tend to either get killed or betray him. When it comes to keeping secrets on set, however, Castañeda is the most loose-lipped of the cast. Even Castañeda admitted that he got in trouble for accidentally leaking the season two poster for the show early.
Justin H. Min Didn't Know Who He Was Auditioning To Play
Justin H. Min was not told who he would be playing in The Umbrella Academy when he auditioned. Each time he got a script for an audition, the name of the character on the page was different. Min had read the comic books after he was told he got the role, so he was familiar with the characters. He said in an interview he was eventually told that he would be a member of the Hargreeves family, but the actors for "all of the other [siblings] had already [been announced]." He didn't find out that he would be playing the Hargreeves deceased brother, Ben, until he got to Toronto to meet showrunner Steve Blackman.