Casts are tricky little things. The living, breathing nucleus of any TV show, it’s no exaggeration to say that a well-chosen crop of actors can elevate middling material into something genuinely special. Some TV shows dedicate themselves to the same group of actors season after season, relying on familiarity and chemistry to overcome any potential staleness – the likes of Friends and Battlestar Galactica. Other shows make revolving cast members part of their DNA, with Doctor Who and Black Mirror coming under this umbrella.

The hardest trick is doing both: retaining a core cast that audiences love, but evolving it over time without negatively impacting the all-important relationship between viewers and characters. Stranger Things is perhaps the best example of this format in recent memory. By the time the show ended, it was difficult to imagine a time when the likes of Max, Robin, and Vecna weren’t around.

On the other hand, failed cast reinventions have killed off many a successful series. The Walking Dead attempted to replace Glenn, then Carl, then Rick, but never quite rediscovered the same magic, while The X-Files always struggled without Mulder and Scully as the central pair of investigators.

One recent series that doesn’t get enough credit for successfully rebooting its cast over the course of four seasons is Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy. The live-action adaptation of Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá’s comic book, The Umbrella Academy enjoyed critical acclaim and commanded a loyal audience for three seasons before delivering a less beloved final outing. Despite following one central group of dysfunctional heroes throughout, The Umbrella Academy constantly reworked and refined its cast without ever giving the sense that something had been lost.

The Umbrella Academy’s Main Cast Was Improved Twice

The Umbrella Academy truly struck gold: Tom Hopper as Luther, Emmy Raver-Lampman as Allison, Elliot Page as Viktor, David Castañeda as Diego, Robert Sheehan as Klaus, Aidan Gallagher as Five, and Justin H. Min as the sadly deceased Ben.

A mixture of well-known actors and fresher faces, those playing the Hargreeves kids exuded the kind of sibling chemistry that was always going to define whether The Umbrella Academy actually worked in live-action. If viewers failed to buy the complex dynamics between these moody ex-superheroes, the series would have been as worthwhile as a chocolate umbrella. Thankfully, the cast clicked into the kind of harmonious personality medley that money can’t buy.

Even if Netflix had shoved those seven actors into a room without a script, filmed them for a week, then spent the rest of The Umbrella Academy‘s budget on extravagant catering, the result still would have been an entertaining series.

Don’t fix what isn’t broken, the old saying goes, but The Umbrella Academy had other ideas, and enacted two crucial cast changes that, against all odds, made the show even better.

The first began in season 2, but truly started to yield fruit in the final two seasons, and was the addition of Ritu Arya as Lila Pitts. Maybe it was the kind of upfront directness that nobody does quite like a British ’90s kid. Perhaps it was Lila’s ability to make the other Hargreeves siblings look reasonably calm by comparison. It might’ve been a bit of both. Either way, Lila was the missing piece nobody knew The Umbrella Academy needed, perfectly complimenting the original gang while adding her own unique brand of wit and humor.

By the final season, it felt like Lila had been there from the very beginning, which is testament to both Arya’s realization of the character, and the established cast’s ability to morph themselves around an extra sibling.

The Umbrella Academy‘s other major change also came in the final two seasons, and involved an original actor in a not-so-original role. Across The Umbrella Academy‘s first half, Justin H. Min played Ben the Friendly Ghost, with season 2 affording him way more color and personality. For the next two seasons, however, Min would play an alternate version of Ben from the Sparrow Academy, his story focusing on the difficulties of one lone sparrow slotting into a rack of umbrellas.

Again, the character simply felt like ‘Ben’ rather than ‘Sparrow Ben’ by the end of The Umbrella Academy, which is perhaps the biggest compliment that can be paid. The switch from dead Ben to not-dead Ben opened up so many more avenues and relationships that had been teased in the first two seasons, but couldn’t fully unravel due to Ben’s tricky afterlife situation. With a near-perfect cast already in place and Lila arriving as a clever late addition, upending Ben allowed The Umbrella Academy‘s excellent cast to reach its final form.

The Umbrella Academy Changed Supporting Casts Each Season, And Never Got It Wrong

Beyond the Hargreeves siblings themselves, The Umbrella Academy made full use of a rotating supporting cast, arguably better than any other non-anthology series from the past decade.

In season 1, The Umbrella Academy had Hazel, Cha-Cha, Pogo, and Leonard Peabody. Viewers became fully invested in Hazel’s romance with Agnes, while the prospect of The Umbrella Academy without Pogo seemed ridiculous. Some of these individuals would return later in minor roles, but The Umbrella Academy otherwise moved on from characters who had become firm fan favorites. How could they ever be replaced?

The Umbrella Academy season 2 somehow managed it, introducing Sissy and her son, Harlan, alongside Raymond Chestnut and a larger role for season 1 character The Handler. By the finale, viewers were left pondering how The Umbrella Academy could possibly continue without these bright new additions, but season 3 repeated the cycle by making everyone fall in love with the Sparrow Academy. Even in the less-than-popular season 4, The Umbrella Academy still delivered with its supporting cast. Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally proved unexpected highlights, as did David Cross, once more helping viewers forget how much they loved last season’s missing cast.

Looking back, it feels like the days of Hazel and Cha-Cha stalking the Hargreeves siblings through diners and abandoned department stores belonged to a different show entirely, so adept was The Umbrella Academy at parachuting in new characters who perfectly captured the show’s kooky tone and rebellious spirit.

Release Date

2019 – 2024-00-00

Showrunner

Steve Blackman

Directors

Jeremy Webb

Writers

Steve Blackman

Franchise(s)

The Umbrella Academy