Full guide to The Umbrella Academy team's powers
Get reacquainted with the team before diving into their next adventure.
After a two-year break, The Umbrella Academy is returning to our screens for a third season on Netflix, as the rather dysfunctional superhero family find themselves in an unfamiliar timeline and preparing to do battle with some new adversaries.
Elliot Page, Aidan Gallagher, Robert Sheehan and Tom Hopper are reprising their roles as the Hargreeves siblings – each of whom may need to rely on their powers more than ever before.
As you'll remember, each sibling was born on the same fateful day in 1989, from women who had previously shown no signs of being pregnant whatsoever and manifested superhuman gifts that were then developed under the rather tyrannical watch of Reginald Hargreeves.
And those gifts look like they could be about to change a little again – having already experienced evolution in the second season – with showrunner Steve Blackman teasing back in August 2020 that "I like to think as we go forward that their powers are also evolving."
He added: "They were trained until they were 14 or 15 by a very dysfunctional dad but then the family blew apart before they could finish their training. … They might even discover in the future that their powers are stronger when they’re together."
Here's your full guide to their power set for the moment.
Number One (Luther) – super strength
Luther has superhuman strength, which made him an indispensable member of The Umbrella Academy in their heyday, leading the team and sticking around longer than anybody else. Unfortunately, he was grievously wounded on one particular mission, prompting his adoptive father to take drastic measures to save his life. He injected Luther with a serum that transformed the top half of his body into that of an ape, explaining his enormously muscular and hairy appearance.
Number Two (Diego) – uncanny aim
Diego is able to curve the trajectory of any object he throws, allowing them to hit their target with devastating accuracy. He uses this gift primarily to throw knives while fighting criminals as his vigilante alter-ego, which has put him on the radar of police in the past. He is also able to hold his breath indefinitely.
Number Three (Allison) – mind control
Allison has the ability to control people by saying the phrase "I heard a rumour..." followed by whatever she wishes them to do. It's a power with unnerving implications and became a point of serious contention when her husband discovered she had used it to make their child behave.
Number Four (Klaus) – can speak to the dead
Klaus is able to communicate with the dead and make them tangible figures in the land of the living. However, quite literally haunted by his powers, he has resorted to drug and alcohol abuse which has limited his effectiveness in recent years. He is often accompanied by the ghost of Number Six.
Number Five – space and time travel
Number Five is gifted with the power of teleporting through space and time, which he can use to travel short distances (across a room) and considerably longer ones (decades into the future). The problem is, his control over this ability is unreliable, which is why he ended up trapped on a post-apocalyptic Earth in the first season. Due to his time-travel shenanigans, he has grown much older than his adoptive siblings at the Academy, but is stuck in the body of a 13-year-old.
Number Six (Ben) – can summon tentacled monsters
One of The Umbrella Academy's creepier members, Ben has the power to summon horrifying tentacled monsters from his body, disposing of the team's foes in brutal fashion.
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He died under mysterious circumstances, meaning his only way to communicate with the team now is through Klaus, who has been able to pull Ben into our world for fleeting moments in the past. A different version of him – who survived – was introduced at the end of season 2 and looks set to play a major role this time around.
Number Seven (Viktor) – converts sound into destructive force
Originally thought to have no special abilities, it emerged in the first season that Viktor (originally called Vanya) was actually the most powerful member of the Umbrella Academy. He can convert sound into pure destructive force, capable of killing people and destroying entire buildings, using his violin as a tool to channel this power. He turned against his siblings after discovering he had been lied to for years, and suffered from amnesia in the second season – only for his memories to return via electroshock torture later on.
The Umbrella Academy season 3 streams on Netflix from Wednesday 22nd June. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.
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Authors
David Craig is the Senior Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest and greatest scripted drama and comedy across television and streaming. Previously, he worked at Starburst Magazine, presented The Winter King Podcast for ITVX and studied Journalism at the University of Sheffield.
