In just a few short days, The Umbrella Academy will conclude after a thrilling four-season endeavor.
Based on the comic book series of the same name, the superhero tale follows the Hargreeves siblings as they reunite to prevent the apocalypse and solve the mystery of their father’s death.
Fans have been thrilled with the series, which offers a charming, acerbic, thought-provoking look at a fractured family coming together to learn about their history and themselves, all while trying to save the world.
Diego Hargreeves is one of those siblings.
When we first met him, he was an armed vigilante, but he slowly came into his own over time, even falling in love. He was ready to settle down with his longtime love, Lila, when we last left him in season three.
David Castañeda has portrayed the fan-favorite Diego since the series inception and has endeared himself to many through his gripping portrayal of the rebellious, knife-slinging hero.
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I was delighted to speak with the utterly charismatic Castañeda as we discussed the upcoming season and dove deep into his beloved character. He’s got tremendous insight and a ton of respect for Diego and the fans, who’ve genuinely come to love the character and the series.
Castañeda was delightful, and this interview was filled with laughs and tremendous introspection. It’s a treat for all you Umbrella Academy fanatics!
When season three ended, everyone was splintered off, powerless, going their separate ways. What kind of Diego are we going to meet in season four?
Well, he’s going to be very resentful. Obviously, he’s going to be a father, a husband, a working man, a nine-to-five kind of guy.
And he’s definitely going to be in a space where he’s going to put a lot of pressure on himself to be something that he’s not, and secretly hope that he has an opportunity to go back to the status quo, which is being a superhero.
And that sort of permeates into his marriage, and sort of the passion and love that he once had for Lila has dissipated. So that’s where you see him at the beginning.
That’s interesting because when Diego and Lila first got together, I was a little bit unsure about it. I’m not going to lie. I was like, “Do they fit? Do they not fit?” But they match each other so well.
What do you enjoy most about their relationship? It looks like they will have some issues this season, but in general, what makes it work?
For me, it’s Ritu Arya. She and I have a very playful, open, and collaborative way of working together. If I go left, she goes left. If she goes straight, I go straight. So there’s a lot of that banter you see on screen that can also translate to the dynamics off-screen.
One of the biggest things about working with someone is that when you see them having fun on-screen, the audience has fun, too.
It’s like when you watch an actor, and you feel like, “Oh, that actor is having fun,” you can’t help but keep watching. And I do feel that between Diego and Lila, no matter how mean they are to each other, there’s a little bit of joy underneath that sort of spitefulness that makes their relationship, just for me from watching it.
You want to root for it. You think, “Oh, they belong together.” You don’t want them to be separated.
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Coming into season four, what kind of growth have you seen and appreciated in Diego from the beginning to now?
Oddly enough, I haven’t seen the first season in a while. But I remember shooting it, and I just remember my own personal headspace of like… there was just a lot of deep insecurity.
I think Diego was going through the same thing about his resentment towards his family for leaving and his need to be identified or have some sort of meaning in his life of being a superhero.
From season one to season four, you have Diego having a midlife crisis in a certain way, where he kind of wishes he was back in season one; he kind of wishes he was still that.
But just the fact that he’s not — I think that in itself adds a conflict between who Diego is and where he actually needs to go and what he actually needs to learn, which is that the grass is never greener on the other side. He’s reliving his past. It’s like an Al Bundy kind of thing.
He’s like, “Yeah. Well, you know, back in my day when I was playing football, I used to throw the football over the mountains,” kind of thing.
But I like how from season one to season four, how much they’ve leaned into how silly it is, how silly he is. And I think in the first season, it was just very brooding. And now they’ve turned it on its head, the broodiness becomes the joke in itself, and it’s become much more aware.
Me, as an actor going in, I’m much more aware of like, “Oh, here’s the comedy, what Diego is.”There wasn’t much of that in the first season. I didn’t know I was being funny, and somehow, they were like, “Hey, dude, that’s really funny.”
And I was like, “I thought I was being just super intense.” And it’s like, “Actually, it’s really funny where you’re intense.”
I can see that. In season three, especially, he was a bit more joyful, you could say, as compared to season one. But I also thought he was funny in season one because he took himself too seriously.
To me, in my own selfish way, this is my favorite season—this one and season two—because they were just the funnest to shoot. They were just so, so fun.
Diego is a huge fan favorite. He was always my favorite because he was very real and very rooted in himself. As I said, I thought he was funny in the beginning.
He did take himself really seriously and all that kind of stuff. But as we’ve gone on, we’ve seen different sides of him, and we’ve seen him fall in love.
What do you think it is about Diego that really has endeared him to fans?
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I’m shocked that he’s a fan favorite, if I’m honest. I think what makes him a fan favorite might be that maybe he does things that we, as people, want to do.
Maybe he does certain things we see in ourselves that make it very relatable, where sometimes we’ll have these waves of anxiety of, “I need to do this, and I need to be this, and I need to do this.
And I need it now. I need to do it now.” And then when you see it play out somewhere else, it’s relieving to see like, “Oh, maybe that’s what I look like.” I don’t know. Credit to the writers. They’re the ones coming up with the gags. They’re the ones that were like the Öga for Öga gag.
Here’s a small, little-did-you-know thing.
So, when we were doing season three, there was a great line; I think it might have been in the later episodes, like episode four, five, or six, where Luther, he’s trying to take the lead on something, and they make fun of him because they’re like, “Oh, like that time you gave all your money to Prince something?”
And he goes, “Hey, he was a king, and they took his throne unrightfully.” So that was in the script, and it was such a funny gag. But then later, when the rewrites came out, they took that out. Tom and I had rehearsed that gag so much that we still did it.
To me, that’s just credit to the writers for coming up with relatable things like the scam emails we get all the time, such as “I’ve lost my fortune, please send $500,” and stuff. I think the writers do those things, and obviously, we go in there and just put on suits and try to embody them.
Every fan favorite has something different. But, like I said, Diego always felt very real. And so, as you said, you could see certain things in him in yourself at different times. That’s why he was my favorite.
I appreciate that, Whitney.
You’re welcome. The dynamics and the dysfunctional family who really do love each other are kind of the core story of Umbrella Academy.
This might be difficult, but do you have a favorite Diego dynamic among the siblings? Or is there one that you felt was a lot of fun to play or required going to different layers?
Yeah. Obviously, round the nose would be the relationship with Lila because that has been permeated through the seasons, and it’s sort of been a staple.
Yet also, I will say the Luther-Diego dynamic is something that was slightly exported in season one; in season two, it took off a little bit more, and in season three, a little bit more.
And I think in season four, you’re going to get a lot more of that. And it’s one of those things that I love the Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, and those sorts of things.
And Diego and Luther are just the perfect balance between naive and utter seriousness. And you put those two together, and it’s like you just have a combustion of comedy. It’s really funny.
Yeah, that’s a great dynamic.
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How did you feel when you read the final scripts for the season and saw how everything would end? How do you feel about the end of the series?
Well, [showrunner] Steve Blackman always withholds the last few pages until a day or so before shooting. So, there were a lot of dilemmas at the end of this season about what was going to happen and how it was going to end. And when I read it, it wasn’t something like, “Oh, man, I can’t believe this is over.”
I didn’t really have that. It wasn’t until we actually shot the last scene that it was very surreal. It was surreal to be doing this with everyone at the same time.
And I don’t know. I’m still processing, like, “Oh, man, is it really over?” A part of me is still holding onto this thing of, “Oh, maybe Netflix will decide, ‘Do you know what? Let’s do another half-season. Let’s do another six episodes.’” But yeah, we’ll see. We’ll see. Hopefully, the fans enjoy this last one.
Were you able to take a memento or anything from the set, something of Diego’s to keep with you?
Anything that I have? I had a knife, one of the big knives, and I gave it to our fight coordinator, Tommy Chang. I signed it and said, “As meaningful as it is to me, I got to live it. I have it all here in my head.” But aside from that, I’ve got tons of photos. I’ve got set photos and things like that to keep with me.
Good memories, right? And you get to watch it back, too—that’s a memory.
It’s like a whole photo book. It’s one of those things where when and if I ever have a family, I can sort of look back and say, “Hey, look, this is your dad.” I’ll Diego my own kids. “Watch your dad. Watch your dad act. Lila is pretty good, right? I lost weight, but now I’m fat. I’m good, right?”
There you go. You kind of just answered this, but The Umbrella Academy has such a passionate fan base. What would you say to the fans who’ve been taking this ride for the past few years right before they embark on the last few episodes?
Take your time. It’s six episodes, and you’re going to go through it in a day, and then you’re never going to have another episode to watch. So, take your time, enjoy it. Or don’t. Sit down with your family and go six hours ballistic. Go in there.
But the biggest thing is thank you. As much as you saw us grow, it’s really nice to see all of you guys grow because many of them are in or graduated from college. When they started the show, they were sophomores or juniors in high school.
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Some were in middle school, and now they’re working at prestigious jobs, and Domino’s Pizzas, and stuff like that. It’s been nice. It’s been nice to hear people’s reactions to it, so hopefully, they enjoy it.
Working for TV Fanatic, I’m obviously big into TV, so I love to ask those I’m speaking with for the first time what TV shows they’re currently enjoying and what are some of their all-time favorite comfort television shows.
Okay. The show that I’m actually watching right now is Baby Reindeer. I’m on episode five. It’s a great show. I wish I could watch more TV, but I watched Beef. Beef was great. I haven’t seen The Bear. I know everyone keeps talking about The Bear, but I haven’t seen The Bear.
But in terms of comfort TV, Seinfeld is up there for me. I can watch Seinfeld all day and be like, “Oh, yeah,” I could just chill. And, oh, Dragon Ball Z. Dragon Ball Z is another one. It’s an anime, but it’s still sort of a TV show.
Whitney, I have a question, though. What is yours? What is your comfort TV?
Oh, there’s a lot. I probably watch The King of Queens every day.
Wait, wait. Is that Kevin James?
Yeah.
I love that show. I love that. Everyone’s great. Their dynamic. Leah Remini and Kevin, and that whole spiel between them and Jerry Stiller.
Yeah, that’s how I do it every night: Before I go to bed, I’ll put on an episode.
Oh, man. That must have made you happy when that meme blew up of him!
Oh, yeah. Yes, it was great! So great. Well, that’s my time. It was great talking to you, David.
Yeah, you too. Thank you so much.
The final season of The Umbrella Academy premieres on Netflix on August 8, 2024.
