Posted in: Netflix, Preview, streaming, TV | Tagged: Elliot Page, netflix, steve blackman, The Umbrella Academy, trans, transgender, umbrella academy

Elliot Page Discusses Coming Out as Transgender, The Umbrella Academy

During today's TIME100 Summit session, The Umbrella Academy star Elliot Page discussed coming out as transgender & how the show addressed it.

When we've been writing about Netflix's series adaptation of Gerard Way & Gabriel Bá's The Umbrella Academy lately, it's been mostly built around getting updates on how things are looking with the fourth and final season – set to hit arrive this August. But for this go-around, the spotlight shifts to actor, director, and LGBTQ+ activist Elliot Page, who took part in an interview with TIME Contributing Editor Sam Lansky at the annual TIME100 Summit in New York City earlier today. Over the course of the session, Page discussed the mixed feelings he experienced after coming out as transgender in a social media post in December 2021 (shared below). In addition, Page discussed when he felt ready to come out, his experience being featured on the cover of TIME magazine – the same issue where he shared what it was like getting to the point where he was comfortable enough to come out as a gender non-binary transgender person – and how writing has helped him along the way.

In addition, Page shared how TUA Showrunner Steve Blackman was one of the first people he came out to – and how they worked together to do right by Viktor Hargreeves's story. "Steve [Blackman], the showrunner of 'Umbrella,' is actually one of the first people I came out to," Page shared with Lansky during their conversation. "I called him nervously, and he was incredible. If anything, he was the one who was very insistent on immediately having it be a part of the show and supported me to be able to access the care I was hoping to get at that time," he added.

The Umbrella Academy: Steve Blackman Previews Final Season

It was early in 2023 when Blackman signaled that the last line of the series finale (S04E06: "End of the Beginning" – directed by Paco Cabezas and written by Blackman) had been written. Meaning that we now knew the titles of the season's bookend episodes (with the final season kicking off with S04E01: "The Unbearable Tragedy of Getting What You Want," written by Blackman & Jesse McKeown). Following that, Blackman shared a look at a storyboard that included the caption, "Power. Unhinged." As for the storyboard, it appeared to show a character unleashing some serious power – but who? Also, are we sure that it's the same person? We're leaning that way – but something about the bottom image vibes differently from the one above it:

Netflix's The Umbrella Academy Season 3 stars Tom Hopper as Luther aka Spaceboy aka Number One, David Castañeda as Diego aka The Kraken aka Number Two, Emmy Raver-Lampman as Allison aka The Rumor aka Number Three, Robert Sheehan as Klaus aka The Séance aka Number Four, Aidan Gallagher as Five aka The Boy, Justin H. Min as Ben aka The Horror aka Number Six/Ben aka Sparrow Number 2, Elliot Page as Viktor aka The White Violin aka Number Seven, Colm Feore as Sir Reginald Hargreeves, and Ritu Arya as Lila. And speaking of the Sparrow Academy, we also have Justin Cornwell as Marcus aka Number One, Britne Oldford as Fei aka Number Three, Jake Epstein as Alphonso aka Number Four, Genesis Rodriguez as Sloane aka Number Five, Cazzie David as Jayme aka Number Six, and Existential Dread Inducing Psykronium Cube as Christopher aka Number Seven. In addition, Javon Walton (Euphoria, Utopia) has joined the cast in an undisclosed role. And (of course) Colm Feore as Sir Reginald Hargreeves.

Megan Mullally (Will & Grace), Nick Offerman (The Last of Us), and David Cross (Mr. Show) have also joined the cast of the final season. Offerman and Mullally will star as Drs. Gene and Jean Thibedeau – "a married pair of community college professors from New Mexico who wear sensible footwear and suffer from the most extreme case of deja vu this timeline has ever seen." Cross' Sy Grossman is "an upstanding, shy business owner and family man desperate to reconnect with his estranged daughter, who will stop at nothing to get her back." All three characters are original to the streaming series. Created for television by showrunner Steve Blackman, the series is executive produced by Blackman, director Jeff F. King, Keith Goldberg, Mike Richardson & Jeremy Webb (S03E01), with Way & Bá as co-executive producers and Steve Wakefield producing (301-307). UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group, produces for Netflix.

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