THE SOPHOMORE SEASON

With subversive superhero series the UMBRELLA ACADEMY returning to our screens, we went behind the scenes of SEASON 2 to talk with showrunner STEVE BLACKMAN and Luther himself, TOM HOPPER…

- Nick Spacek

When it debuted last year, Netflix’s adaptation of the Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba comic book rapidly became a massive success. As a matter of fact, it was the third most-watch Netflix series of 2019. Not a shabby response for a program that features a talking chimpanzee, time-travel, a robot nanny, mask-wearing assassins, and a man’s head grafted onto a gorilla’s body.

The Umbrella Academy the show is as visually stunning as The Umbrella Academy the comic, and after a first season which set the stage, the second hits the ground running and never lets up. After escaping 2019, just ahead of a chunk of the moon devastating the entire planet, our characters find themselves stranded in the 1960s, on the verge of yet another apocalyptic event. If the first season seemed fraught with danger, the second doubles and triples down on the ante, bringing a sense of frenetic motion to the already emotionally intense series.

First up, producer Steve Blackman talks about the appeal of adaptation, fleshing out characters, and the importance of music to the Netflix series…

STARBURST: We were able to speak with your cinematographer, Neville Kidd, earlier this year. Obviously, we talked about The Umbrella Academy and one of the things we discussed was that the interesting part about it is that there’s this pre-existing visual style with Gabriel Ba’s artwork from the graphic novel. One of the things he said he enjoyed was taking crazy fantastic characters and making them believable. How is that for you, translating from a pre-existing comic book?