WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Umbrella Academy Season 2, streaming now on Netflix.

On midnight of July 31, Netflix released the long awaited second season of The Umbrella Academy. Along with it, Netflix released a podcast series on Spotify that will release weekly episodes every Wednesday starting from July 29th until August 26th, featuring the creators of the graphic novel, Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, along with series creator Steve Blackman and many other cast and crew members. This feature will tackle all the information brought up in the second episode of the podcast, which goes over the difficulties of writing a time travel show and filming the sit-in Civil Rights protest.

The Rules of Time and Space

There was a battle within the writers room of The Umbrella Academy as they tried to solve the issues of time, specifically what changes to the timeline should be dealt with. For instance, if one were to go back in time, do they exist with their past self or are they just changing their own personal timeline, like in Avengers: Endgame. 

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Writer Robert Askins stated the difficulties with changing large events, like the Kennedy assassination, posing questions like what are the consequences of this and could it even be possible. The writers also acknowledged the standard rules of time travel, including the butterfly effect. Furthermore, they proposed that if time is set in stone, then any changes made in the past do not matter because time will always happen how it wants to.

However, they eventually realized these pre-set rules were simply roadblocks for them. After hours of deliberation, the writers came up with their rules for time travel, checking each scene in heavy detail as to not create a paradox. They also invented the negative effects of meeting one's past self in the form of Paradox Psychosis. The time travel rules created by Blackman and his team will stick for the entire series as to not confuse audiences or the writers.

Allison During The 60s

Allison in The Umbrella Academy Season 2

New staff writer Aeryn Michelle Williams was excited to be working on The Umbrella Academy as her first staff job, and she was especially excited when she found out the show would take the family to the 1960s deep south, but she was concerned with how Allison Hargreeves would react to the new setting. Emmy Raver-Lampman (Allison) said she was also excited yet scared to portray her character during the midst of the Civil Rights Movement.

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She was forced to reinvent Allison without her powers, making her someone in search of a simpler life, one without the pressures of fame or the Academy. She also had to relearn how to use her voice, since Allison had her throat sliced last season and is now an active member of the Civil Rights Movement. Blackman and his team worked with researchers to make sure their depiction of the movement was also accurate and respectful.

Raver-Lampman told the host of the podcast, Brandon Jenkins, that the sit-in protest scene was shot in order, which is different from how shows usually film. The episode's director Stephen Surjik did this so everyone is in on the ride, experiencing the entire protest in one go.

Filming During the Civil Rights Movement

The first night of filming had the scene where Allison's head is held down by an officer as her husband, Ray (Yusuf Gatewood), was beaten by police. While Raver-Lampman knew it was fake and safe, with Gatewood padded and the officers using fake batons, the image of it was still hurtful to see. After each scene, Raver-Lampman had extras coming up to her to apologize for what they were saying and doing, to which she responded, "Stop apologizing for doing your job," as she was not taking it personally and knew this story was important to tell.

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Director of photography Craig Wrobleski wanted to shoot the scene from the middle of the action rather than from the outside, as historically these events were filmed from the outside of the chaos. He did this to immerse the audience in the world and make them feel like they were part of the protests rather than outside observers. While filming, he got overwhelmed by what he was seeing, getting choked up during the shoot and during the podcast.

Raver-Lampman also mentioned how even though that scene was filmed last year, nothing felt far away. It was hard for her not to imagine living through the event as it heavily paralleled the protests happening today. She knew she had to get it right for the movement and the people who lived through it. Blackman, Surjik, Gatewood, Wrobleski and Raver-Lampman all discussed that they wanted to get it right and that it was good, important work as Netflix gave them a large audience who would view that scene and react to it.

The Umbrella Academy stars Ellen Page, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher and Justin H. Min, with Ritu Arya, Yusuf Gatewood, Marin Ireland, Jordan Claire Robbins, Kate Walsh and Colm Feore. Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.

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