By Kharisma McIlwaine
After four seasons, “The Umbrella Academy” is in its fourth and final season. The Netflix original series was released in 2019 and follows the story of seven children with powers who are adopted by billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves, who creates The Umbrella Academy to prepare his children to save the world.
David Castañeda and SUN writer Kharisma McIlwaine
Photo courtesy Kharisma McIlwaine
The dynamic cast includes David Castañeda as Diego Hargreeves, Aidan Gallagher as Number Five, Tom Hopper as Luther Hargreeves, Emmy Raver-Lampman as Allison Hargreeves, Justin H. Min as Ben Hargreeves, Elliot Page as Viktor Hargreeves, Robert Sheehan as Klaus Hargreeves, Colm Feore as Sir Reginald Hargreeves and Ritu Arya as Lila Pitts. Rife with dysfunction centered around an emotionally absent father, the team eventually disbanded during the siblings’ teenage years.
The story begins with the six surviving Hargreeves siblings reuniting upon their father’s passing. Each of the Hargreeves goes through immense changes as the discover who they are as individuals outside of the family dynamic over the course of three seasons.
Season four begins with a reset timeline, the Hargreeves siblings stripped of their powers, and one last quest to reunite and save the world. David Castañeda visited Philadelphia and spoke to the SUN about the journey of Diego, his feelings on the show coming to an end and what he hopes audiences will take away overall from “The Umbrella Academy” experience.
Diego’s journey over four seasons has been one filled with a myriad of metamorphosis. Now that the character’s journey is over on screen, Castañeda reflected on the pieces of Diego he will take with him.
“I don’t know that it will ever leave me. So many things that Diego is, I am… yet I am not him in my daily life,” Castañeda said. “But there are so many elements that I can tap into that remind me of him and remind me of my siblings in the show. So, I don’t know if that’s something that I have to reignite. I think it’s going to be constantly there and hopefully it never leaves.”
In addition to the positive aspects of Diego’s character that he will keep with him, Castañeda spoke on the importance of representation in playing a Latin superhero.
“It’s been surreal,” Castañeda said. “It’s been quite a gift because I never thought I’d have this opportunity. I just wanted to act. I think at the point where I got this show it was still in the midst of “Avengers,” and I think “Black Panther” was about to come out. It was still in the glory days of Marvel. Also, “Dark Knight” and Batman movies were just coming out of that. I don’t remember hearing a lot of people say, ‘I want to play a superhero.’ I think once I did the first season, that’s when I think everyone was leaning into this is where we’re going now.”
“Every movie is making a billion dollars,” he explained. “Hearing a lot of Latino kids being, like, ‘I want to be a superhero’ and some people being, like, ‘Oh you’re playing a Latino superhero — there’s no Latino superheroes.’ I’m thinking, ‘There has to be and there are.’ But I was very trepidatious of being, like, ‘I’m a superhero.’ I never wanted to rely on that. I just wanted to be, like, ‘I’m doing my best on the show’ and it’s not until now that I’m, like, ‘I got to do that. I got to play that.’”
The transformation that viewers witness Diego undergo on screen parallels the same feelings Castañeda experienced growing with the character both on and off the screen.
“It’s been very personal from where I was approaching Diego in 2018 as an actor to where I am now in approaching him,” Castañeda said. “I tried really hard as an actor so this idea of camera angles and what I’ve seen in other films and things like that. There was a lot of influence in that for what I was trying to figure out with Diego. As the seasons progressed, I got more comfortable, and the writers got more comfortable with seeing me and what I could do more. I relaxed a little bit more. I think I felt myself be the character at ease, and by the time you get to seasons 2, 3, and 4, I feel like there’s an evolution of how much more comfortable he feels with the siblings around him and not having to pose so much, but more so knowing where exactly I fit in as a performer and how Diego fits in with the siblings. I think that’s sort of what time gives you.”
At the heart of “The Umbrella Academy” is a story about family and siblings, specifically the good, the bad, the supernatural, and the ugly. Castañeda felt the connection with Diego because in many ways, the character mirrored his own relationship with his siblings.
“I think the dynamic with the siblings, there’s always this conflict within that because he wants to be seen by them and have authority with them, but he doesn’t have any of that, and I can sort of feel that within my own sibling relationship at home,” Castañeda said. “But the way he responds to it is different from the way I respond to it. He takes himself too seriously, and I don’t. So, I find a lot of humor in that within myself and Diego doesn’t. I guess he can lash out at people if he doesn’t feel seen. That was the way he was able to communicate, ‘Hey I need love, I need to be seen; therefore I will insult you.’”
In this season of “The Umbrella Academy,” Diego continues working through his family trauma, but now with a different perspective. His trauma, which is rooted in the way he seeks validation from his father, now impacts what that means for him as a father and how he shows up for his family. The character struggles with finding balance in showing up authentically as Diego, and as a husband and father in a way that is positive and allows his family to feel like he’s present.
“I think Diego in each season is trying to understand the trauma, but his trauma is more so about his father,” Castañeda said. “In the first season, it was about the monocle and him throwing that away and just trying to move as far away from that as possible, to trying to figure out who murdered [his] dad. In the second season, it was very much about trying to understand his dad, and the reason why saving JFK for him was such a monumental thing, is because he thought it was going to get him closer to his father. The beautiful thing about it is as evolution moves on through the seasons, season 3 is less about dad, and season 4 it’s more about him being a dad now. That evolution, as they say, [is that] we tend to pass down the unsolved trauma to our kids, and Diego was unconsciously doing that in season 4 without knowing.”
Trauma will always be present as part of the human experience in any family dynamic. Amazing things can happen when families can work through that trauma for the greater good. In the case of the Hargreeves siblings, they can put aside their differences to save the world…literally. The familial bond that Castañeda experienced as Diego also carried over to the feelings of family that were created over four seasons with his cast mates.
“When you get in the room, it’s super-hot because of all the cameras and the lights are on,” Castañeda said. “You’re there for the 10th or 12th hour, and you’re saying your lines for the 120th time — it does build a relationship with them. It builds perseverance. It builds sort of a calloused way of approaching the work that feels like your siblings. It’s really special to be able to have that dynamic, and all of us being similar in age and growing together with the show. It almost feels like we’ve graduated. We did four seasons, and this is our senior year. We just finished prom and now we’re going to go off to college.”
As “The Umbrella Academy” comes to an end, Castañeda recounted some of the most rewarding aspects of his experience from season one to the finale of the show. He also offered his hopes for what audiences will take away from experiencing the series from start to finish.
“The entire experience has been very rewarding,” he said. “It gave me stability, it gave me a career, it made my family trust my decisions as an actor — a lot of positive things. But I think one of the biggest things was that every season felt so different, but in the end, there was such a learning tool to take every day to the set — knowing that it was almost like I was going to an acting conservatory, and it was encompassing everything from production to time management to dealing with conflicts, resolving issues and acting. So it was like an entire school, and I got to see the best of the best every day on set just to see them work. Sometimes you have an out of body experience during rehearsal, like, ‘Oh my god, these guys are so good.’”
“I feel elated,” Castañeda added. “I’m rushed with anticipation of what people are going to experience when they see it and how it’s going to be received. Yet, I feel complete and full and very happy to have had the opportunity to close a character properly and a show properly. I got to work with very talented cast members and crew members and a terrific showrunner and writers, and streamers — it’s great. I hope they’re very happy and they can experience the journey with the people they can enjoy it with the most and maybe rewatch the first season after finishing it up, and they can see the contrast of where all the characters end up and where they start again.”
All four seasons of “The Umbrella Academy” are available to view on Netflix.
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