Netflix has cast actor Ellen Page in the lead role of the Umbrella Academy series.
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News first broke that Netflix was adapting the Gerard Way comic back in July, with the streaming service revealing that the pilot script was penned by Jeremy Slater — the writer behind Fox’s latest Fantastic Four reboot and The Exorcist television series. Page is currently the first person to join the cast of the Dark Horse Comics adaption.
She’s set to play the character Vanya, who is the black sheep of her dysfunctional family. Vanya, of course, is the only one of Reginald Hargreeves’ adopted children without any supernatural abilities; she’s said to be a “meek and insecure wallflower” who is attempting to find her place in the world.
This isn’t Page’s first comic book role. She previously played Kitty Pryde in 20th Century Fox’s X-Men films.
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The Umbrella Academy: The Apocalypse Suite debuted in 2007, which was followed the next year by the miniseries The Umbrella Academy: Dallas.
The Netflix adaptation is produced by Universal Cable Productions, which announced a development deal with Dark Horse in 2015. Steve Blackman (Fargo, Altered Carbon) will serve as showrunner and executive producer alongside Bluegrass Television with Mike Richardson and Keith Goldberg from Dark Horse Entertainment. Way is co-executive producer. The 10-episode series currently does not have a release date but is expected to launch sometime in 2018.
(via The Hollywood Reporter)