Now Playing

Umbrella Academy season 3 was completely rewritten after Elliot Page came out as trans

1 July 2022, 15:14

Javon Walton Picks His Own Interview Questions | Umbrella Academy | PopBuzz Meets

By Sam Prance

Elliot Page's character Viktor Hargreeves comes out as trans in The Umbrella Academy season 3.

Loading audio...

The Umbrella Academy showrunner Steve Blackman has revealed that he rewrote all of season 3 after Elliot Page came out.

In December 2020, Elliot Page came out as trans. Taking to his social media, Elliot shared a statement in which he wrote: "Hi friends, I want to share with you that I am trans, my pronouns are he/they and my name is Elliot." Since then, Elliot has also revealed that his Umbrella Academy character would be coming out as trans and now be called Viktor instead of Vanya.

Last week (Jun 22), The Umbrella Academy season 3 came out on Netflix and the show instantly received praise for Viktor's moving transition storyline. Now, Steve Blackman has confirmed that he rewrote all of season 3 around Viktor's transition.

READ MORE: Here's how Viktor comes out as trans in The Umbrella Academy season 3

Umbrella Academy season 3 was completely rewritten after Elliot Page came out as trans. Picture: Taylor Hill/WireImage, Netflix

Speaking to ET Steve said, "I had already finished the season, the writers were gone, scripts were finished and I got a call from Elliot one day saying, ‘I’m transitioning.’ I was very happy for him."

As for how that affected The Umbrella Academy, Steve added: "To his credit, he didn’t demand that I write it into the story. He said, ‘Do what you want. I trust you. Write it in, don’t write it in, whatever you want to do.' Elliot is very kind like that."

Steve then revealed that he got in contact with GLAAD’s Nick Adams and trans author Thomas Page McBee because he didn't "know a lot about what it is to be transgender" or "how to tell that story". Together, they rewrote Viktor's storyline, making sure that it wasn't a "sob story" and that it made sense for both Elliot and Viktor.

How does Viktor come out as trans in The Umbrella Academy? Picture: Netflix

Speaking about Elliot specifically, Steve said that he "didn’t make any demands". However, Steve decided to run scenes by Elliot specifically to ensure that he was happy with them. He said: "I just sent the pages to Elliot and I said, 'What do you think?' And he said, 'They’re beautiful.' They had a few thoughts and that was it."

Steve ended by saying: "He was so kind to me, he didn’t make any demands on it. He just said, ‘Craft the story you want to tell,' and that was really wonderful. You can’t get better as the showrunner, as a writer, from someone like that."