Netflix’s superhero series, The Umbrella Academy, is by far one of the most popular additions to the streaming service in the past year or so. Based on a comic book, The Umbrella Academy is thrilling, funny, and an emotional ride into a group of people who are special.
The show’s second season was far better than the first outing, although the stakes were pretty much similar. While The Hargreeves are the most important characters in the series, the fans cannot oversee the impact of the side characters. Here are some of the best of them, ranked.
Updated on July 14th, 2022, by Shawn S. Lealos: The third season of Umbrella Academy arrived in 2022 and introduced an entirely new world of characters for fans to either dismiss or fall in love with. This includes not only the Sparrow Academy, but a time-traveling Samuel and the manager of the Hotel Obsidian, making its debut from the comic books on which the show is based. However, it would take a lot for the new characters to surpass the ones fans fell in love with in the first two seasons, although some of them lived up to the task. With another season to come before the show ends, the three seasons have given fans some great characters to lead them to what will hopefully be a great finale.
Sir Reginald Hargreeves
The mastermind behind the emergence of The Umbrella Academy, Sir Reginald Hargreeves is one of those characters who the fans know nothing about, but are integral to the story.
He is the “pretend dad” of the seven special children and the only thing he wants from them is that they reach their potential. In the second season, some more things are revealed about him, including one shocking moment that the fans didn’t see coming.
Lila
A brilliant addition to the show in season two, Lila is The Handler’s daughter, although she doesn’t know that The Handler murdered her parents to adopt her special abilities.
Lila was being played all along, but she couldn’t know because she thought there was good in this world. Lila is one of those people who think they are too tough to fall in love or care for someone when in reality, they are the ones who are more scared than anyone else.
The Handler
The Handler is the biggest antagonist of the story, although one can argue that Vanya has played the villain as well. Being from The Commission, she has lived all her life trying to find ways out of a problematic situation and that has led to her having no emotions.
She literally doesn’t care about anyone but herself and it’s so easy to get manipulated by her. She tries to play everyone for a fool and in the end, she paid the ultimate price.
Harlan/Lester Pocket
Harlan first showed up as a child in the second season and Viktor saved him by transferring power into the child’s body. While that character wasn’t really that great and was just a plot device that carried the second season, he came into his own in the third season as an older man.
As Lester Pocket, he was still the good person that chose to do the right thing as a child. Harlan is someone who doesn’t want to hurt anyone unless provoked, but when his mother dies, he goes off the deep end and is one of the most complex characters in the third season.
Chet Rodo
One would think that the best characters in The Umbrella Academy would be the heroes or the villains in the Netflix series. That totally underestimates the side characters, especially ones like Chet Rodo. He made his appearance in the series as the Hotel Obsidian manager, a hotel that was straight out of the Umbrella Academy graphic novels.
Chet had to deal with the Umbrella Academy and Stanley, even though he knew that some of them were wanted criminals. Chet was also someone who lasted longer than almost anyone in the season before the apocalypse caught up with him, and Netflix has to find a place for him when the show returns.
Sloane
Sloane was one of the newcomers who showed up in the third season of Umbrella Academy as part of the Sparrow Academy. What made her different from most of her other teammates was her wide-eyed optimism. She wants to see the world and looked forward to getting out of the house and out from under the roof of the Sparrow Academy.
Her character arc is not quite as impressive as the character, though. Instead, it is about her wanting to get married to Luthor before the end of the world. However, there is so much promise with her character that more of her would be great to see.
Diego Hargreeves
The man who can bend anything, Diego is number two in The Umbrella Academy and he is the only person in the team who cannot let go of the “hero” complexion.
He wants to be a hero so bad and one can tell by the way he loves to be a vigilante. Even in the second season, all he wanted to do was save John. F. Kennedy, even when he heard about the apocalypse. Diego is also pretty disrespectful but he absolutely loves his siblings and can give his life for them.
Luther Hargreeves
The Umbrella Academy’s number one, Luther is the opposite of a leader because he is way too sensitive. In reality, no one in the team is fit enough to be a leader, although Five will be a pretty good shout. Luther is a giant man, who has a lot of feelings and he literally wears his heart on his sleeve.
One can easily tell what he is thinking just by one glance at his face. He is one of the funniest people in the series and a total fan favorite.
Fei
Fei was a newcomer in season 4 as one member of the Sparrow Academy. After leader Marcus died, Fei became the new leader of the group and proved that role fit her like a glove. Fei’s powers include summoning a murder of crows who act as her eyesight since something happened to her eyes.
She is a natural leader and is someone who can flip a switch from calm to fierce in a second. She is also funny and brought something fresh and fun to the entire third season before the apocalyptic ending.
Allison Hargreeves
Allison has one of the best powers among her siblings. Even though she isn’t the strongest, she can talk anyone into doing her bidding. While her power is pretty addictive, all it has brought in her life is sadness.
She cannot seem to have a personal life because when people get to know about her powers, they usually end up hating her. In the second season, she married Ray, only to lose him by using her powers in front of him. In the third season, Allison started to lose control and created more problems than she solved.
Ben Hargreeves
Throughout the series, Ben only interacts with Klaus and because the fans never really get to know him as a person, he is one of the least important parts of the story, although that narrative changes drastically in the second season. Ben is someone who has the power to generate tentacles from his body. And these are no normal tentacles, they can easily split a body into two.
In season three, Ben played an even bigger role as part of the Sparrow Academy and he also had a close relationship with Klaus that made him an even better character. He was funny and season 3 improved Ben to an even better character than he was in the first two seasons, the best of all the Sparrow members.
Stanley
Stanley is not a member of the Hargreeves family and is not part of the Sparrow Academy, but with his attitude, he could have fit in perfectly. Played by Javon Walton, Lila took him from Berlin in 1989 with the sole purpose of learning if Diego will be a good father to her unborn child.
Stan and Diego developed a great relationship with each other and offered a good look at how the former vigilante would interact with his possible child. Stan was a great new character, one of the best new ones in season 3, and one that will hopefully return in the fourth season.
Klaus Hargreeves
Klaus is, undoubtedly, the most entertaining character in the series and he is an absolute delight to watch. He has incredible powers like he can conjure up the dead, let them possess his body, and also use them as human shields, sometimes.
But, because he usually hears people scream with pain, he gets used to drugs, so he can’t stay sober enough to use his powers. Eventually, though, thanks to Ben, Klaus becomes a better human being. Thanks to his death in the third season of Umbrella Academy, he became so much more in the end.
Vanya/Viktor Hargreeves
Ellen Page’s portrayal of Vanya Hargreeves is absolutely spot on. She hides her feelings deep inside her heart and only allows them to come out once in a while. At first, she doesn’t know if she has any powers but when she understands what her father tried to hide from her, she goes absolutely berserk and who can blame her? After all, she has been kept apart from the family for way too long.
Vanya is by far the strongest member of The Umbrella Academy and the third season saw a major change. Vanya came to a realization about his gender and changed his name to Viktor. This added a lot to the character as he ended up in the new timeline with the Sparrow Academy.
Number Five
Five is basically the man, who drives the storylines in the two seasons and he is the oldest member of The Umbrella Academy in a kid’s body. After mistakenly finding himself in an apocalyptic future, Five is recruited by The Commission to act as their personal assassin.
And through his brilliant brain, he finds a way to travel back to the past, so that he can save his family and stop the apocalypse. Of course, he finds a lot of difficulties but his homicidal nature helps him, to be honest.
