(This story contains spoilers from the fourth and final season of The Umbrella Academy.)
During the finale of the first season of The Umbrella AcademyViktor Hargreeves blew up the moon, causing a global apocalypse that catapulted him and the rest of his superhero siblings into an alternate timeline. But three seasons later, after numerous universe-altering antics alongside his superpowered family, the man who once destroyed the world plays a key role in saving the world in the final six episodes of the Netflix series.
“We shouldn’t misunderstand this, he still has something going for him,” says Page The Hollywood Reporter about where his character begins the final season of the series. “He’s holding onto a lot of anger that he clearly needs to let out, and he does that at some point this season. But we also see that he’s able to deal with his anger in a slightly healthier way. He doesn’t – spoiler alert – blow up the moon.”
Page is right to say that Viktor will eventually resolve his “daddy issues” that drove much of the first season’s plot – albeit with an alternate universe version of Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore). But getting there required a confluence of specific, sometimes undoubtedly cosmic, narrative events in the series, which is based on the comics of the same name by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba.
First, through a surprise in season three in which the seven adopted and dysfunctional siblings – once known as the masked superhero troupe The Umbrella Academy – survive another doomsday scenario, only to be transported to a version of 2019 without their powers. For actor and creator Steve Blackman, it was intentional to offer this version of Number Seven, one that is “definitely a new and much more comfortable Viktor,” says Page. “We always thought that Viktor would be the one who was probably most comfortable with living a ‘normal life,’ despite unresolved issues with his father,” Blackman previously said. THR.
Aidan Devine as Gary, Colm Feore as Reginald Hargreeves and Elliot Page as Viktor Hargreeves in the series finale.
Christos Kalohoridis/Netflix
And then there’s the six-year time jump in the show’s abbreviated final season, which allowed Viktor to build a life as a bar owner with a healthy level of partnership outside of his family baggage and the oppression of his (alien) father. “(Viktor) has been part of his life for years now, probably doing T (testosterone therapy) or however it’s done in this world, and feels more grounded in himself,” the actor says. “He doesn’t feel like he needs that external validation, is happy that his powers are behind him, because they’ve caused a lot of turmoil in his life.”
There is a third event that Page mentions, but it is more of a creative coincidence than a fully fleshed-out four-season plan: Viktor’s gender reassignment. Season three sensitively traces it, mirroring Page’s own life. The storyline leads to a Viktor increasingly free of his insecurities and his past of exclusion and oppression by his family and the world – both his literal powers and, ultimately, his person.
“He can actually live his life, connect with people and be open and open in this world. I don’t necessarily mean that in terms of his identity,” Page explains. “I just mean where we found him at the very beginning when he was so scared and closed off. Now we find him and he’s just back with both shoulders.”
Viktor’s powers are finally given back to him during a reluctant family reunion at a Japanese steakhouse in the season four premiere. And when he’s back, they manifest as a much more concentrated beam of sound and energy manipulation, a byproduct, according to Blackman, of the higher concentration of Marigold – the element created by Hargreeves’ wife Abigail that gave Viktor and his siblings their superpowers. This is another sign that the Viktor in season four is not the same person fans have seen before.
“His power is closely tied to his emotional state, as we’ve seen over the course of the seasons. The first time it really erupts out of him is when Viktor has a fit of rage and he needs to protect (himself), but the rage is too much. It’s bigger than he wants it to be,” Page says. “So I think what we’re seeing is this self moving toward this self-awareness, which allows him to control (his power) in a new way. And I think that’s because he understands himself better, his baggage better, and himself better, so it can be a little more targeted.”
Returning to Page’s earlier point, the narrative journey that leads Viktor into his season four consciousness and ultimately to his brand of Hargreeves heroism isn’t necessarily driven by any particular aspects of his identity, as, according to Blackman, the siblings “don’t really love each other in season one, when they’re coming back together after the trauma of their father’s death,” to season four, where they “really end up being a family.” It’s a natural progression that Viktor makes as the family’s “ultimate outsider,” and one that comes from being able to “see things from a different perspective” from the beginning of the series, Page notes.
“I think about where we first find Viktor and the distance he experiences with his siblings because he wrote a book and decided to speak about the truth of how fucked up their childhood was. He shines a light on the siblings and they’re angry about certain things,” Page reflects. “But he also talks about the influence of their father and how he treated them in ways that other people don’t talk about. This very powerful man who turned children into a superhero team and sold comic books and other merchandise to them and exploited them, which is so fucked up, you know?”
It’s this chaos that befell the siblings “that makes the show so good,” the actor says, capturing some of the biggest impacts of Viktor’s influence on the universe over four seasons. “Because of this thing that made all the other siblings so uncomfortable – that he decided to shed light on the truth and the reality of this situation – we end up seeing all these other siblings who have to see in their own way what this reality was and what they have to deal with, and who have to come to terms with themselves and change; who have to move forward through the negative impacts and consequences that have affected their lives because of this man and this horrible situation that they were put in.”
But within this organic character development, it’s hard to ignore that Viktor – largely through Page’s portrayal over half a decade – has become one of the better reflections of the trans experience on television, even if that wasn’t always intentional or planned from the start.
Page as Viktor in the series finale.
Courtesy of Netflix
From his struggle to understand and control his inner feelings as an outsider to the Umbrella Academy in season one, to the emotional and developing queer romance between Sissy and Viktor in season two, to his eventual coming out as transgender in season three—the last two moments of which Page said he “would have had so much fun at any age”—Viktor’s journey as “the one who takes the risk of facing the truth” has shaped the genre and the reputation of the transgender scene as much as the superhero team itself.
“Representation doesn’t solve all the problems, but I certainly think it’s very important. I know that even the little glimmers of queer stuff that I stumbled upon as a kid or a teenager meant so much to me, even if I didn’t know exactly why,” Page says. THR. “When we’re in the situation that we’re in – the attitudes towards trans people, trans people’s lives – it’s so important. When we’re such a small population and the vast majority of people don’t know a trans person – or think they don’t know a trans person personally – it means a lot. It means a lot to viewers who want to feel represented. It makes you feel less alone.”
But it remains unclear how interested Hollywood is in stories like this, which, alongside Supergirl‘s Nia Nal/Dreamer (played by Nicole Maines) and Gotham Knight‘ Cullen Row (portrayed by Tyler Dichiara). While a handful of genderqueer, fluid and other nonbinary characters have graced the screens in recent years in superhero series such as The boys and a whole series of DC TV adaptations (Batwoman, Legends of Tomorrow, Death Patrol), The Batgirl The film’s transgender heroine, Alysia Yeoh (played by Ivory Aquino), never saw the light of day after Warner Bros. Discovery controversially canceled the inclusive project amid a spate of tax write-offs.
Combined with the larger anti-trans sentiment the community is currently facing, the uncertainty surrounding more stories like Viktor Page’s has caused pause at times. When the actor, who has also served as a producer on recent LGBTQ-centric projects, Near you, Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story, Backspot And In my name, When he hears that there is more planned after Viktor, it makes him excited, even hopeful.
“I’ll be honest with you, with everything that’s going on in the world and in Hollywood, I have these moments where I wonder: What’s going to happen? How is Hollywood going to react? Are there going to be any more trans stories? Are they going to cast trans people to the extent that they should?” he says. “So it’s like: yes, please, let’s keep doing this. Let’s keep telling these stories and give more people a chance that deserve a chance.”
All episodes of The Umbrella Academy are streamed on Netflix.
