Each member of The Umbrella Academy was given a number before they got a name, but why is Luther number 1 and not someone else? Based on the comic book series by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, The Umbrella Academy made its debut on Netflix in February 2019, becoming an instant hit. A few weeks later, the series was renewed for a second season, which was released in July 2020, reuniting viewers with the Hargreeves and following them through new obstacles.
The Umbrella Academy follows the dysfunctional family of adopted siblings, the Hargreeves, who along with other 36 babies, were born on the same day, at the same time, and under mysterious circumstances, as none of their mothers was pregnant when the day began. After hearing about this event, scientist and billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves set out to adopt as many of those babies as he could and got seven of them. As they began to develop superpowers, Reginald trained them and formed the team “The Umbrella Academy”, but he wasn’t the best father figure, and the siblings eventually parted ways, reuniting years later for Reginald’s funeral and to stop the apocalypse. The only one of the Hargreeves who never left the team was Luther (Tom Hopper), also known as Number 1, who was loyal to Reginald until his very last day.
When all his siblings left, Luther was the only one who kept going on different missions, but one of them went terribly wrong, and in order to save him, Reginald had to take some extreme measures, which resulted in Luther’s upper body turning into that of an ape, but he kept his superstrength. As he was having trouble adjusting to his new body and life, Reginald sent him to the moon to watch out for threats, which Luther took very seriously, though Reginald never really cared about his work there. Luther was appointed the team’s Number 1 since they were kids, which sparked a rivalry with his brother Diego (David Castañeda), a.k.a. Number 2. It’s unclear exactly at which point Reginald decided to “number” his children, and many fans have theorized they are in reverse, corresponding to power (meaning that Vanya is Number 7 because she’s the most powerful), in which case Luther wouldn’t be Number 1 because he’s the strongest, but because he’s the one with better control of his power.
However, there might be another reason for Reginald to make Luther the team’s Number 1 and not someone else, especially Diego. By now it’s clear that Reginald’s methods weren’t the best, and he took some very extreme measures while training the kids, such as medicating Vanya for years and locking Klaus in a mausoleum for hours. Reginald surely noticed there was a natural rivalry between Luther and Diego given their strong personalities, and making Luther Number 1 was a way to motivate both him and Diego to be better – but that might have not resulted as Reginald expected, as Diego ended up leaving the team and they had a hard time working together, at least in season 1. Gerard Way shared on his Instagram account that Reginald named Diego Number 2 because “one of the things that drive Number 1 is the tension between him and Diego”, so it was Reginald’s own (and somewhat twisted) way of pushing Luther and Diego to be better.
Luther took the role of Number 1 very seriously, to the point where many viewers ended up not standing him during The Umbrella Academy season 1, but he loosened up a bit in season 2. Perhaps Luther’s attitude would have been different had he been appointed Number 2 and Diego Number 1, but that wouldn’t have represented any type of challenge for them, and Reginald was all about constantly challenging his children. Thankfully, in The Umbrella Academy season 2, both Diego and Luther realized that numbers don’t matter and that Reginald’s intentions had always been shady, allowing them to move on and finally work as a team.