“It’s something that the fans have always enjoyed every season,” he continues. “So a lot of them we plan ahead of time, myself and the writers, of what fun things could we put in that either are callbacks to the graphic novel [the Dark Horse comic series, created by Gerard Way and illustrated by Gabriel Bá] or callbacks to the show itself.”
In the video above, Blackman walks Tudum through key things fans might have missed from all four seasons of The Umbrella Academy. From references to Jennifer (Victoria Sawal) in every season to the parallels of Ben (Justin H. Min) and Viktor (Elliot Page) trying to save each other, catch all the Easter eggs from The Umbrella Academy now.
The artifacts in Gene (Nick Offerman) and Jean’s (Megan Mullally) barn hearken back to previous seasons.
We meet Gene and Jean in Season 4 as the founders of The Keepers, a “cult-like” support group for those who believe they’re living in the wrong timeline. Their proof? A barn full of objects they’ve collected from previous timelines. “We wanted to find a collection of things that the fans would easily recognize, so we actually picked things from all four seasons,” says Blackman. “Things from Hazel (Cameron Britton) and Cha-Cha (Mary J. Blige) [in Season 1], things that we saw in the farmhouse in Season 2, things from the Oblivion Hotel in Season 3, and some things from Season 4.”
When they first shot the barn scene, they actually didn’t have enough artifacts featured. “What you’re seeing is some of them were really there, but a lot of artifacts have been put in by VFX to even add more,” says Blackman.
The book that Five (Aidan Gallagher) finds in the subway has a special symbol on the cover.
The sign on the cover of the book was a fun callback to Season 1, as it was featured on the Meritech Prosthetics building. “That symbol is actually an old alchemy symbol, and the old alchemy symbols played with matter and how matter can be changed,” says Blackman. “We wanted to play with the fact that this was a symbol that existed in two different timelines and also influenced the fact that matter could be changed in the magic subway that they take through timelines.”
The Minerva, an iconic aircraft from the comics, makes a special appearance in an Episode 4 flashback.
“The Minerva is a much beloved flying machine that is from the graphic novel that the fans really love,” says Blackman. It’s actually what Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore) used to collect all of the children when he first collected them in the beginning of the graphic novel. “So it was important for us to see it a few times during the show. We get to see a small version of it in the pilot, but really we get to see the full Minerva in all its glory in Season 4, piloted by the amazing Pogo.”
Speaking of pilot Pogo, his look in the flashback takes inspiration from Robert Duvall’s character Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore in Apocalypse Now.
“We all love Apocalypse Now, and we wanted Pogo to look badass,” says Blackman. They went through different designs before landing on the final one. “It was such a timeless design of the ’70s Vietnam-era pilot.” They enlisted Wētā Workshop, which did the design work in New Zealand, to put together a few different versions of it. “Ultimately, we picked the one that really, really matched Robert Duvall’s character from the movie.”
There are references to Jennifer in every season of The Umbrella Academy.
In every timeline, Jennifer and Ben are always meant to be intertwined, so Blackman made sure to drop references to her throughout the series. “The Jennifer Incident is a huge part of the graphic novel. It’s a story that basically defines Ben’s death,” says Blackman. “So it was very important that we tell that story, and I knew that I was going to tell it by the end of the season. So I wanted to pepper in through the seasons moments where the audience may or may not notice that they’re seeing references to Jennifer.”
In every season, there are pictures on the wall that, if you look very closely, say “Jennifer,” and you can’t quite make out the face of the woman. There are other pieces in Ben’s room, like scribbles that read “Jennifer” in Season 2. In Season 3, Ben has all these drawings, and he can’t quite figure out how the face should look. But he dreams about this woman, Jennifer. And then he finally meets her in Season 4. “The idea is that in all the timelines, he’s destined to be pulled towards Jennifer. So if you go back, you’ll see that Jennifer — her face, her name — exists in all of the seasons in different places throughout the academy.”
Viktor tries to help save Ben in the Season 4 finale, which parallels when Ben sacrificed himself to save Viktor in the Season 2 finale.
“In the Season 2 finale, Ben saves Viktor and we wanted to pay that off again in Season 4 and have Viktor saving Ben. We wanted to come full circle,” says Blackman. “We found these two characters were in a way both outliers in the family, and it felt right that in this alternate timeline that one would save the other.”
Ben saving Viktor in the FBI office in Season 2 is one of Page’s favorite memories from the series. “What Ben does to save Viktor in this scene plays a huge part in why Viktor won’t give up on Ben,” Page told Netflix.
Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) calling Viktor “El” in the finale was improvised.
In the Brellies’ final scene, Viktor asks Allison if she feels strong enough to power up for the last time. Allison says, “Yeah, thanks El,” as in Elliot Page’s name, and not Viktor’s. “That was Emmy Raver-Lampman just improvising,” says Blackman. “It wasn’t scripted, but I thought it was lovely.”
Season 4’s final scene in the park features cameos of cast members from previous seasons.
“We wanted to make the final moment really special and say that in this final timeline, things have all come back to normal. All the other timelines don’t exist and it’s just a normal life,” says Blackman. “So we brought back in as many of the returning cast as we could.”
In the scene, you discover that Allison’s daughter, Claire (Millie Davis), and Lila (Ritu Arya) and Diego’s (David Castañeda) family have survived. Showing up to film on the day was “crazy” for Davis. “We had no idea what was going on! There were no sides, no script,” she tells Tudum. “They were just like, ‘OK you guys are all going to sit here and we’re just going to press record while you sit and chat with each other.’ ”
As the camera moves away from the family, you can see the Swedes from Season 2, Hazel and Agnes (Sheila McCarthy), Grace (Jordan Claire Robbins) pushing a stroller, and the Handler (Kate Walsh) in the middle of a run. “It was so exciting to be a part of the beginning and the end of the story,” Britton tells Tudum. Like Davis, he “didn’t know until we got there that day what exactly we were doing, why, and the context for it.” He considers it “one of the cleverer endings I’ve seen in a while.” Robbins found that coming back was a beautiful way to finish the experience of working on the series. “It was cool because there were a lot of people I hadn’t worked with, because our storylines didn’t cross, that I got to be on set with that day. Like the Swedes!” she says. “It was a really cool, very surreal, very fun last day.”
You can also spot Bá doing a drawing for Dot (Patrice Goodman) and Herb (Ken Hall) from the Commission. There are shots of Bá’s twin brother, Fábio Moon, sitting in the background, too. “I hope people scream a little if they catch me there because it was fun for me,” Bá tells Tudum. “Our first idea was to make a cameo in Season 3, but it couldn’t happen because of COVID. I was really happy to be part of that last episode.”
The crew also hid details throughout the park scene.
“There’s lots of things we threw in just for fun for the audience,” says Blackman. “The crew and cast surprised me. One of the children is playing with a doll, and it looks exactly like me with my black hat, my jacket, and the Diet Coke that I usually have in my hand. So that was cute.”
Five’s beloved mannequin, Dolores, is also just looking around a corner. “There’s a few other surprises if you look really carefully,” says Blackman.
Every season features original drawings by Gabriel Bá.
“He is such a fabulous artist,” Blackman says of the illustrator of the comic series. “So it felt important to me to get something of his in every season.” For the first season, Bá designed fake comic books for the show, including the cover of the issue in the first episode. He also worked on toys and merchandise for the series.
They also asked him to design the tattoo that was on Pogo’s arm in Season 3 and the Mothers of Agony patches that they wore on their bike jackets. In Season 4, Bá did some drawings that are scattered around different scenes, including Pogo’s flight logo for the Minerva. And ultimately, he does the sketch in his cameo in the park scene.
“I enjoy just being part of it as little as that may be,” says Bá. “It’s fun for me.”
Blackman wanted to get Gerard Way’s name in the series a few times, too.
The first appearance is in Season 1. “If you remember, Viktor has a book, My Extraordinary Life,” says Blackman. “If you look at the reviews in the back when young Viktor’s holding the book, you can see ‘Reviewed by Gerard Way,’ along with the other reviewers.”
The second reference is in Season 3, when Sloane (Genesis Rodriguez) reads a book called The Jetset Life. As Way is a member of the band My Chemical Romance, the book title was a callback to their song, “The Jetset Life Is Gonna Kill You.”
Even though the references like his name as a reviewer feel “so far back now” for Way, he tells Tudum that “the cool little things they put in there like that” are fun to see.
The wallpaper in Lester Pocket’s (aka Harlan, played by Callum Keith Rennie) room in Hotel Oblivion in Season 3 is a nod to the hallway carpet in The Shining’s Overlook Hotel.
“We all loved the movie The Shining, so we went ahead and we copied the carpet from the movie for the Overlook Hotel,” says Blackman. Additionally, production wanted to be environmentally conscious when they built the hotel set. So the columns for the hotel are all made from recycled styrofoam — namely, Starbucks coffee cup holders. “All the walls are made from them, and there are thousands of them,” says Blackman. “Bet you didn’t know that one!”
The Russian mural from the very first episode teases the Hargreeves siblings viewers will soon meet.
In the series premiere, there’s a sequence of how the children were mysteriously born to nonpregnant women across the world. Online, fans noticed “that the mural in the Russian pool house is a clear depiction of the Academy.” And guess what? The fans were right.
The kids portrayed in the mural — who are working together as a team — are intended to represent the seven members of the Umbrella Academy viewers are about to meet in the following scenes. You could call it the show’s first Easter egg. “The Russian mural was one of our first times we wanted to incorporate something that the audience could pick up in the background very subtly,” says Blackman.” It was one of our first attempts to throw something in the background that the fans who are really paying attention might notice.”
There’s a reference to the “Televator” from the comics in Season 2.
In Season 2, Episode 8, Grace sees plans for a “Televator” in Sir Reginald Hargreeves’ office. In the comics, the Televator was invented by Hargreeves as an elevator lift that allows the team to travel in time, space, and even other dimensions. While most of the time travel in the TV series happens thanks to the Commission’s briefcases or Five’s abilities, the comic uses the Televator for time travel.
Look for these Easter eggs (and more, if you can find them!) in all four seasons of The Umbrella Academy now, only on Netflix.
