Throughout the first season of The Umbrella Academy, actors David Castañeda and Aidan Gallagher only shared the screen in the scenes where their characters, Diego and Five, were present with all of their other siblings. For the new season though they probably have more scenes together than any other combo of Hargreeves kids in the whole season, except for Klaus and his attached-at-the-hip-but-dead brother Ben. ComicBook.com spoke with Castañeda and Gallagher recently about their time together and what makes them as a pair work so well.
“I think that they’re both very driven and passionate about their task, and they really won’t let anything get in the way,” Castañeda said. “Even if, Diego at least, even if he finds himself being wrong, he’ll still find a way to figure why he’s right. So I think when you put those two mentalities together, it makes it fun to watch.
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“That was great,” Gallagher added. “It’s very fun as an actor to be in the skin of Five and to have Diego as a brother. Those two characters, they both are very driven and determined, and where Five isn’t as personable as he should be, Diego makes up for it. So you have a nice contrast and balance between those two characters. So, yeah, anytime me and David get to share a scene feels great.”
The pair also chimed in on the killer soundtrack for the second season, which has just as many ear worms and awesome needle drops as the first. Gallagher, himself a musician in addition to being an actor, said that these decisions all come from series showrunner Steve Blackman and without input from the on-screen talent.
“I’m always excited, but I’m also very respectful of the music that Steve chooses for the show,” Gallagher said. “I saw an interview where Quentin Tarantino was talking about his writing process and how he writes with the music and that informs the tonality of the scenes, so that the music and the dialogue become one, and they really fit each other and support each other. So I always suspect that Steve has these little ideas in his mind of, ‘Okay, what fits tonally for where I want to go with this scene?’ and then writes around that. He’s got a great taste in music and fans certainly understand that from all the needle drops from the first season.”
The Umbrella Academy season 2 premieres in full this Friday, July 31, on Netflix.
