Warning! This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for The Umbrella Academy season 2.
Ellen Page, who plays Vanya on Netflix's The Umbrella Academy, says that the cast weren't told about the twist that leads to the season 2 cliffhanger ending. The show, which is based on the comic books by My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way and Brazilian artist Gabriel Ba was a ratings hit for Netflix when it was released last year. Season 2, which was released by Netflix on Friday, has already seen massive viewership, and is currently the most-streamed show on the service.
The Umbrella Academy follows the Hargreeves family, consisting of seven children all magically born on the same day back in 1989, among a group of 43 children. The cast includes Page, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher and Justin H. Min as the seven members of the family, with Colm Feore playing their adoptive father, the eccentric billionaire Reginald Hargreeves. The Umbrella Academy season 2 finds the family scattered across Texas in the early 1960s, where they once again have to prevent the end of the world. The final episode ends with a shocking cliffhanger twist that comes out of left field.
Page, in an interview with Collider, says that the cast weren't even told about what the ending really meant. She explains that while the cast all got the scripts from every episode, the final couple of pages from the final episode were missing, and that they didn't get told what the final reveal really meant, only being given a vague idea of what's happening. You can read her full quote below.
Things do leak, so the last page or two of the final episode wasn’t available. Even though there was an idea of what was happening, we didn’t fully know the whole thing, so that was exciting. But for the most part, it’s what one expects. I’ll learn more things about other storylines that I’m not engaged in. It’s always fun for me to watch because I’m not in a bunch of it, and then I get to watch all of these awesome storylines. Of course, I have the scripts, but it’s cool to get to see.
Page also says that she loves a good cliffhanger ending, and really enjoyed finding out what happens at the end of season 2, saying that when she first saw it, she exclaimed "What an awesome cliffhanger! That is so good!" She adds that having a final shot or moment that makes you say "Oh my god!" is a "joy." Page ends by saying that she can't wait to work on the next season, and hopefully get more time to work alongside Min, whose Ben will likely have an expanded role in season 3 based on the cliffhanger ending.
The twist, which sees the Hargreeves return to 2019 only to find out that their father is still alive, and has raised a different group of children, now called The Sparrow Academy, certainly opens things up for The Umbrella Academy season 3. It seems like rather than setting up another end of the world battle, the Hargreeves will be forced to work together again, this time to find out just what happened when they returned to the present, and why they've been replaced.
Source: Collider