The Umbrella Academy casts three actors as new, non-comic characters
The last time we saw the characters of The Umbrella Academy, their world was exploding.
Clearly, though, that’s not the end. Netflix has announced that the surreal superhero show — based on the comics by writer Gerard Way and artist Gabriel Bá — will return for season 2 with the main cast intact. But on Tuesday, Netflix announced three additional castings — and they’re for original characters created for the show rather than adapted from the comics.
Ritu Arya (Humans) will play Lila, a “chameleon” with a twisted sense of humor who can be as brilliant or insane as needed. Yusuf Gatewood (Good Omens) is Raymond, a warm, dedicated, and devoted husband who can disarm you with a look. He has the smarts, gravitas, and confidence to make sure he never needs to prove his qualifications as a born leader — qualities the constantly-bickering brothers Luther (Tom Hopper) and Diego (David Castaneda) could probably learn from.
Rounding out the trio is Marin Ireland, who is also set to star in another comic-based show, FX’s upcoming Y: The Last Man. Here, she’s playing Sissy, a no-nonsense Texas mom who married young for “all the wrong reasons” but ready to rediscover what life has to offer.
Interestingly, none of these characters have a precedent in The Umbrella Academy comics — not even Hotel Oblivion, the third and most recent story arc published just this year by Dark Horse. It makes sense, since the show put the main villains of both the Apocalypse Suite comic — Vanya Hargreeves (Ellen Page) — and the Dallas story — time-traveling assassins Hazel (Cameron Britton) and Cha-Cha (Mary J. Blige) — into season 1. Not that these new characters are villains, necessarily; just an indication that the show has already adapted most of the characters from the comics.
“We understand that it’s a different thing,” Way told EW about the show last year. “This is its own beast that’s gonna run on its own legs and morph into its own thing. We’re going to focus a lot on the book and make that the best it can be, so they have good material.”
Production on season 2 of The Umbrella Academy is currently underway. Season 1 is streaming on Netflix now.
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