‘The Umbrella Academy’ Adds ‘Black Sails’ Star Tom Hopper

The Umbrella Academy Cast
The Umbrella Academy cast (Photos Courtesy of Netflix)

Netflix announced Tom Hopper (Black Sails), Emmy Raver-Lampman (Hamilton), David Castañeda (Switched at Birth), Aidan Gallagher (Nicky, Ricky, Dicky, and Dawn), and Robert Sheehan (Geostorm) have joined the cast of The Umbrella Academy. In addition to announcing the cast, Netflix released details on each of their characters in the upcoming series based on Dark Horse Comics’ Eisner Award-winning comics and graphic novels.

My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way created and wrote the comic books, with Gabriel Bá illustrating. Way will act as a co-executive producer on the series and Steve Blackman (Fargo), Mike Richardson, and Keith Goldberg are executive producing. Blackman will also be the series’ showrunner. The Exorcist‘s Jeremy Slater wrote the pilot script.

The Plot: The live-action series follows the estranged members of a dysfunctional family of superheroes (The Umbrella Academy) – Luther, Diego, Allison, Vanya, Klaus and Number Five – as they work together to solve their father Reginald Hardgraves’ mysterious death, while coming apart at the seams due to their divergent personalities and abilities.

The Umbrella Academy Characters:

  • ‘Luther’ (Tom Hopper)
    Luther was groomed by his father from an early age to be the leader of The Umbrella Academy – a responsibility that has always weighed heavily on him. He is resilient, a workaholic, and possesses the ability of heightened physical strength. Upstanding to a fault, Luther always tries to do the right thing, even if that means putting others before himself.
  • ‘Allison’ (Emmy Raver-Lampman)
    Allison is beautiful, elegant, and a formerly world-famous movie star who possesses the power of suggestion – anything she says aloud comes to pass. Her life seems perfect from the outside, but her ability has undermined every relationship she’s ever had. With her career on the decline and her marriage in shambles, she refuses to use her power as she seeks a more authentic life.
  • ‘Diego’ (David Castañeda)
    Diego is a skilled, intense vigilante who has a real problem with authority. He isn’t as naturally strong or smart as his siblings, so he’s worked three times as hard for everything. Believing he should have been the leader of his family instead of his brother, he carries a massive chip on his shoulder that makes him hostile to just about everyone.
  • ‘Number Five’ (Aidan Gallagher)
    Number Five appears to be a thirteen year old boy, but in actuality he is a fifty-eight-year-old man trapped in the body of a child. He doesn’t suffer fools and is the smartest person in the room. He’s haunted by the things he’s seen and done, and is on the verge of losing his grip on reality.
  • ‘Klaus’ (Robert Sheehan)
    Klaus is a drug addict and lovable mess of a human being and yet, if you ask him, any day now his life is going to turn around. He’s a classic “middle child” – a disarming pleaser who is seemingly everyone’s friend, but will rob you blind without thinking twice.