Netflix’s Umbrella Academy starring Ellen Page: cast, explanation and reviews
Netflix’s Umbrella Academy stars lesbian icon Ellen Page. (Netflix)
The Umbrella Academy is now ready to stream on Netflix and Ellen Page fans are beyond excited. Will you be spending this weekend binging all ten episodes?
If you’re a lover of superheroes and of course, Ellen Page, you should watch the first season of this new series. It has ten episodes available to stream, each one lasting up to an hour long.
The Netflix Original is an adaptation of the comic series, The Umbrella Academy, created by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá.
Watch the Umbrella Academy trailer below:
The series focuses around seven of 43 mystery children who were all born on the same October day to women who had shown no previous sign of pregnancy.
The seven are adopted by a billionaire who creates The Umbrella Academy to prepare them to fight crime.
Six of the children show signs of superpowers—the 7th, played by Ellen Page, is made to believe she has no special powers and is taunted for it.
The seven children grow up in an abusive environment and their lives take them in different directions, but when the billionaire dies, the unlikely family has to come together to tackle the mystery of his death and the threat of an apocalypse.
Netflix’s Umbrella Academy‘s cast
Comic series creator Gerard Way spoke to Kerrange! about how pleased he was with the casting.
Besides lesbian icon Ellen Page, who plays Number 7/Vanya, other known faces in the cast of The Umbrella Academy are Misfits’ Robert Sheehan, who portrays Number 4/Klaus, and the legendary rapper Mary J. Blige, who plays a ruthless assassin (and did her own stunts).
Netflix’s Umbrella Academy was released on February 15th. (Netflix)
The cast also includes Cameron Britton, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Aidan Gallagher, Colm Feore, Adam Godley, John Magaro, Ashley Madekwe and Kate Walsh.
Way said: “Every step of the way with the cast, everything was perfect.
“I couldn’t think of anyone better to play these characters than those who ended up playing them.”
What are the Umbrella Academy reviews saying?
While Twitter users use #UmbrellaAcademy to share their excitement and enthusiasm over the new Netflix series, critics aren’t as positive so far.
The Telegraph said that it’s “a stylish superhero story that struggles to rise above the clichés”. However, it was still awarded a respectable three out of five stars.
The Guardian was even less than impressed with the series, scoring it a not-so-great two out of five stars. It said: “It is purest hokum: a superhero show with some potentially interesting stuff lurking underneath about family dysfunction (mostly carried by Ellen Page as the black sheep) that promises never to be developed.”
What’s more, Wired’s review compares the series to X-Men, saying that “people love blatant rip-offs.”
Nonetheless, IMDb rated the series an applaudable 8.1/10.
Regardless of what other people think, the only way to find out how good this series really is to watch it and make up your own mind.
