In the run-up to The Umbrella Academy season 3, Elliot Page confirmed their character will be called Viktor Hargreeves, and this change has always made perfect sense for the show. The Umbrella Academy follows the exploits of people born unexpectedly and at the same time, gifted with special supernatural powers. Reginald Hargreeves brought seven of these people together to create The Umbrella Academy with lofty goals, but ultimately the group splintered until being reunited by his death.
Elliot Page plays Number Seven in The Umbrella Academy, and in season 1 has been convinced that he has no special powers, unlike his siblings, as Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore) has removed all memories of his powers. When Viktor Hargreeves unlocks access to their powers, it brings about the end of the world, and the family escape by time-traveling back to the 1960s. At the end of season 2, after another near-apocalypse, the family travel back to the future but end up in an alternate timeline in which Reginald and Ben Hargreeves are both still alive and Reginald Hargreeves now runs The Sparrow Academy instead.
Elliot Page revealed that they were non-binary in December 2020 and updated their pronouns to he/they. While there has been speculation about how this would affect his character in The Umbrella Academy, a Twitter post in March 2021 saw them post a picture of Number Seven sitting next to his sister, Allison Hargreeves (Emmy Raver-Lampman), at a diner and captioned “Meet Viktor Hargreeves.” While the change will clearly support Elliot Page and was also shared by Gerard Way, the creator of the original The Umbrella Academy graphic novels, it is still unclear how The Umbrella Academy season 3 will handle the changes to Viktor Hargreeves. However, there are multiple reasons why the reintroduction of Elliot Page as Viktor Hargreeves in The Umbrella Academy always made sense and has the opportunity to be perfect.
Why Umbrella Academy Will Have To Address Viktor's Changes
Coming out and transitioning can be a complicated time for trans individuals, but it is that much more complex when they must do so in the public eye. With Elliot Page having made his transition public and having talked about their discomfort with certain past roles, there might be a temptation for The Umbrella Academy to largely not address Viktor Hargreeves’ transition. The Umbrella Academy season 3 could simply include Viktor Hargreeves and move forward without comment in the same way that some shows have recast characters between seasons and the change in actor has not been addressed and the audience just accepts the change.
However, Viktor Hargreeves’ story is a complicated one, and aspects of his The Umbrella Academy season 2 storyline mean that his transition must be a plot point within the season 3 storyline. In The Umbrella Academy season 2, in the 1960s, Elliot Page’s character has a relationship with Sissy (Marin Ireland). The fact that the community perceived this as a same-sex relationship was a major element in the storyline and it allowed Number Seven to provide bi/pan queer representation after their romantic relationship with Leonard Peabody (John Magaro) in The Umbrella Academy season 1. In the wake of Elliot Page updating his pronouns, some people both inside and out of the LGBTQ+ community made depressingly negative comments about their sexuality. To not acknowledge Viktor Hargreeves’ transition would risk playing into these comments, undercut the earlier queer representation in The Umbrella Academy, and not fully honor Viktor Hargreeves’ complex journey of self-discovery.
Why Viktor Hargreeves' Transition Is Perfect For Umbrella Academy
While some might feel that Viktor Hargreeves’ transition in The Umbrella Academy is being driven by Elliot Page’s real-world transition, it actually makes perfect sense for the story as it has been set up. In The Umbrella Academy seasons 1 and 2, Number Seven was already queer-coded in the production. This was likely in part due to Elliot Page’s longstanding contractual requirement that their characters be given masculine attire.
However, beyond production elements, Viktor Hargreeves’ transition is the natural next step for Number Seven’s character progression. Number Seven has represented a queer allegory since first appearing on screen in The Umbrella Academy season 1 as a character who felt different from their family and became an outsider, rejected by those who were supposed to love them because of the life they were living. Number Seven appears socially awkward and is uncomfortable in their body at the beginning of The Umbrella Academy season 1. However, by the end of that season, Number Seven learns to stand up for themselves and to push back against the world around them.
In The Umbrella Academy season 2, Elliot Page’s character has an opportunity to explore their sexuality and to come out as explicitly queer in their relations with others as they find themselves in a time and place where they are less hampered by their familial expectations. By the end of The Umbrella Academy season 2, Number Seven has reached a point where they can identify their own desires and needs after so many years of being told that they’re wrong for who they are and how they act by Reginald and, to a lesser extent, their siblings. With such a strong trans allegory coming to a head, it makes sense for The Umbrella Academy season 3 to take the further step to make Viktor Hargreeves’ transition a plot point and turn the trans allegory into an explicitly trans narrative that can help to provide crucial representation for trans and non-binary people
How Viktor's Sparrow Academy Story Can Drive A Season 3 Narrative
While it would make perfect sense for the Number Seven of The Umbrella Academy seasons 1 and 2 to transition to be Viktor Hargreeves in The Umbrella Academy season 3, the information released so far doesn’t actually make it clear that they are the same person. One possible route for The Umbrella Academy to take in season 3 is for Viktor Hargreeves to not be the initial Number Seven, but rather their doppelganger in the new timeline they arrive in at the end of The Umbrella Academy season 2. If this is the case, then it would put the original Number Seven face to face with a Viktor Hargreeves who is a member of The Sparrow Academy and could create a complex storyline around Number Seven’s self-realization.
While maintaining a presence of both the original Number Seven and Viktor Hargreeves might put undue strain on Elliot Page and therefore be avoided, it would also provide the opportunity for a mainstream version of an imagined queer story. It is not uncommon in trans and non-binary communities for people to imagine stories of being able to time travel to talk to their younger selves and help them to transition earlier or to meet an alternate reality version of themselves who is struggling with similar issues to be able to offer or receive advice. While The Sparrow Academy are being set up as The Umbrella Academy season 3’s antagonists, for Number Seven, meeting Viktor Hargreeves could drive an entirely different narrative, offering the two the opportunity to share their feelings and struggle and to help Number Seven to take the steps to realizing their own vision of themselves as Viktor Hargreeves. While it is unclear for how long the reintroduction of Elliot Page as Viktor Hargreeves might have been planned, even if The Umbrella Academy had not always known it would get to this point, this plot has always felt like a natural next step for The Umbrella Academy season 3.