After a two-year wait, The Umbrella Academy is finally coming back next month. The show’s second season ended on a huge cliffhanger when the Hargreeves family returned from the 1960s to a completely different present day. The Umbrella Academy no longer exists and has been replaced by The Sparrow Academy, which is led by Ben Hargreeves (Justin H. Min). In the original timeline, Ben was killed when the siblings were younger, and the end of the second season saw Ben’s ghost finally fade away. Min thought this was the end of his time on the series, but now he’s back as a whole new version of the character. In fact, he recently told Entertainment Weekly that it’s been an “exhausting” transformation.
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“To be honest, it was exhausting,” Min explained. “I got to work with a voice coach while I was filming to slightly lower my register, as well as learn how to project more. And they wanted me to physically embody the character, so I had to go to the gym for the first time in many years. Having those external factors in place in terms of body and voice really helped me to inhabit the character in a real and convincing way.”
“I think the previous version of Ben was fearful of his powers. It was something he never fully learned how to control on his own, so when these tentacles were unleashed, he didn’t know what would transpire,” Min added. “But since the Sparrows have been trained since such a young age to utilize their powers during combat, it’s something the new Ben feels much more control over. It’s a casual way for him to assert his superiority. In the very first montage where we introduce the Sparrows, you even see him using his tentacles to smoke a cigar and drink. It’s something he whips out as a party trick and will do very casually. He has control over it and he’s very proud of it.”
In addition to Min, the third season of The Umbrella Academy will see the return of Elliot Page (Viktor Hargreeves), Tom Hopper (Luther Hargreeves), David Castaneda (Diego Hargreeves), Robert Sheehan (Klaus Hargreeves), Aidan Gallagher (Number Five), Emmy Raver-Lampman (Allison Hargreeves), Colm Feore (Reginald Hargreeves), and Ritu Arya (Lila Pitts).
As for the Sparrow Academy, the new members will be played by Justin Cornwell, Britne Oldford, Jake Epstein, Genesis Rodriguez, and Cazzie David. According to Netflix, Ben is now “a Machiavellian tactician, wrapped up in a pretty boy body with a rumbling inner-squid. Vicious, pragmatic, and hyper-vigilant, Ben is determined to gain his status as the leader at all costs.”
The Umbrella Academy returns to Netflix on June 22nd.
