The Umbrella Academy, a unique and hilarious series based on a Dark Horse Comics collection of the same name, debuted on Netflix in 2019. Since then, it has seemingly reinvented the somewhat tired superhero format, as its characters, almost without exception, have all manner of glaring, quirky deficiencies, which puts them in a stark oppositive light to the humble and strong heroes that populate Marvel and DC projects.
The ‘family’ comprises seven babies born under mysterious circumstances and adopted by the eccentric billionaire industrialist Sir Reginald Hargreeves, portrayed by Colm Feore (The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Chronicles of Riddick). Each has a unique power and is played by an excellent actor: Tom Hopper (Game of Thrones, Terminator: Dark Fate) plays the muscular gorilla-man Luther, David Castenada (End of Watch, Sicario: Day of the Soldado) portrays the knife-wielding fighter Diego, the wonderful Emmy Raver-Lampman (Untitled Horror Movie, Jane the Virgin) is Allison, Robert Sheehan (The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, Mortal Engines) gives voice to the harried ghost whisperer Klaus, and Aidan Gallagher (Modern Family, Nicky, Ricky, Dicky, and Dawn) plays the time-traveling boy Five.
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However, the true star of the series is Elliot Page (Inception, X-Men: Days of Future Past), who plays immensely powerful Viktor Hargreeves. Here are some of the reasons why Page’s performance in The Umbrella Academy season three is powerful.
From Vanya to Viktor
Netflix
Elliot Page, who has been a staple of mainstream entertainment since the early aughts, recently came out as transgender. The news, given his A-list celebrity status, was broadly publicized, leaving fans of the actor wondering just how the transition would affect his career. In particular, how would their transition impact the projects he was already involved in, like The Umbrella Academy?
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Though Elliot has an acting arsenal that would allow him to portray characters of any gender identity, it was announced long ago that their character would undergo a transition that mirrors that of his real-life journey in The Umbrella Academy season three. Elliot Page came to the decision in cooperation with the series’ creators, and it allowed for a number of important conversations throughout the season. With input from Page himself, the creators of the show wrote the various scenes in which Viktor came out perfectly. His family was nothing but supportive, yet the show didn’t dwell long on the transition, instead focusing on the obviously more pressing upcoming apocalypse. In doing so, they neither ignored nor tokenized Page’s transition.
A Sibling Spat: Allison and Viktor
Familial strife has been a staple of The Umbrella Academy since the series’ 2019 debut. However, in season three, for the most part, the sometimes estranged siblings, after having saved the world twice in the course of only a few short weeks, had very little reason to be at one another’s throats. Especially given the fact that they spent much of the season in a battle with their alternate reality alter-egos, The Sparrow Academy.
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Unfortunately, there was one notable sibling spat in season three, and it came between two characters who had, in past seasons, been perhaps the closest members of the emotionally fraught family: Allison and Viktor. Elliot Page, acting as Viktor, along with Emmy Raver-Lampman, acting as Allision, perfectly captures this familial feud with a vigor that makes audiences forget even the apocalyptic events of the season, albeit briefly.
Viktor’s Empathy
Viktor Hargreeves, despite having been kept sedated and without powers by her adoptive father, Sir Reginald Hargreeves, throughout most of his childhood, is inarguably the most powerful member of The Umbrella Academy. In fact, his powers have been the genesis of the apocalyptic events of the previous few seasons.
In season three, predictably, the world, and moreover, the universe, is once again in a bit of a pickle, to say the least. When it’s discovered that the origin of the most current universal collapse is Callum Keith Rennie’s (The Butterly Effect, The X-Files: I Want to Believe) Harlan, a young boy who Page’s Viktor saved in the previous season, returning to the fold some sixty years later, instead of opting to sacrifice the powerful Harlan, Viktor protects him, shielding the truth from his family. This empathy in the face of the apocalypse highlights Viktor’s character, and Page delicately balances this emotional tightrope.
Elliot Page is an undeniably excellent actor. In The Umbrella Academy, they’ve been able to show off their range, giving a serious emotional backbone to the oftentimes eccentric series. He has had many names throughout the show’s run. They’ve been called Viktor, Vanya, Number Seven, and in the original comic series, The White Violin. Fans of the series’ simply know Page as a great performer.
