The Umbrella Academy's David Castañeda On Final Season, THAT Shocking Ending & John Wick's Ballerina Spinoff (2024)

It's time for the Hargreeves siblings to pay the piper in The Umbrella Academy season 4. Based on Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá's graphic novels of the same name, the Netflix show has followed the stories of Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Five, Ben, and Vanya/Viktor, the dysfunctional adopted children of eccentric billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves, who discovered their superpowers after their simultaneous immaculate births and turned them into a superhero team. Each season of the show has seen them face world-ending threats, largely stemming from their interferences with various timelines.

The Umbrella Academy season 4 picks up six years after the events of the season 3 finale, in which they reset the universe and are now in a timeline without their powers, adjusting to their new lives in various ways. When a cult-like group claim to have knowledge of other timelines and begin coming after the siblings, they all are forced to come back together to prevent the mysterious event the group are trying to enact, known as the Cleanse, reacquiring their powers along the way, to the dismay of some of them.

Elliot Page, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher, Cameron Britton, Justin H. Min and Ritu Arya return to lead the ensemble Umbrella Academy season 4 cast alongside show newcomers Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, David Cross, Martin Roach and Victoria Sawal. Finding a way to raise the stakes even higher while also offering its cast of characters emotional individual arcs, the show goes out on an explosive and poignant note.

Following the show's final return, Screen Rant interviewed David Castañeda to discuss The Umbrella Academy season 4, his thoughts on the show coming to an end and its shocking finale, Diego's reaction to the Five and Lila twist, filming the fight sequence at the CIA, and what to expect from the upcoming John Wick spinoff, Ballerina.

Warning: SPOILERS lie ahead for The Umbrella Academy season 4!

The Umbrella Academy's Final Season Has "Been A Whirlwind" For Castañeda

Fans of the show found themselves shocked by the announcement that The Umbrella Academy season 4 would be the end of the Netflix hit, though were at least thrilled the creative team would get the chance to wrap up the show. For Castañeda, the announcement came as something of a "whirlwind", as he similarly felt sad it was coming to an end, but grateful at "getting closure" for his character. In reflecting on the atmosphere on set, Castañeda felt there was a sense of "peace" and "excitement" rather than sadness from the cast:

David Castañeda: Well, it's hard to grasp the culmination of it, all because it's done so much for me personally, but also just in general, with the community and the fans and the response within each season and how it sort of fluctuates. But I feel sad that that's it, we're done. I also feel really happy and grateful that it sort of cemented my belief in really good storytelling and having to be a part of a show that allowed my character to evolve from season to season. I feel like getting closure and ending a show is also very unheard of, so I can't take that for granted either.

It's been a whirlwind. Yeah, it was more excitement and just a lot of peace, weirdly enough, because when you have long days and long hours and cold nights, knowing that this is the last time we're doing this project, things become a little bit more tolerable. It's just like, "Yeah, we're tired, but when are we really going to do this again?" And you get to appreciate those moments, so it was more of that than sadness. Yeah, there was an acceptance of it, I think.

Diego Is Going Through The "Al Bundy Syndrome" In Season 4

Much like the rest of his siblings, The Umbrella Academy season 4 finds Diego coming to terms with living a life without powers, working as a package delivery man and building a family with Lila, including multiple children. In order to capture this balance between wanting to be a family man and missing his old life, Castañeda worked closely with an acting coach to get into "Diego's psyche", pointing towards his current life as being that of the "Al Bundy syndrome". In looking at Diego reclaiming his powers, Castañeda believes that his character was "reverting back to his selfish ways" rather than being mortified like the other Hargreeves:

David Castañeda: Well, I worked with this acting coach, and we did a lot of dream work, sort of just trying to get in Diego's psyche of what he is latching onto that is making him resentful towards Lila and not really enjoying his life. I think a lot of it is obviously he's identified so much with being a superhero that the fact that he's not that, it devalues his own way of looking at himself. So, when I was approaching the character, I was like, "Oh, this is a big thing. He has such a grasp or a hold on this identity that when you remove that, how he reacts in life is going to be different." So, having that pillar, it sort of informed my performance and every moment trying to figure out how does he get back to being that guy? The Al Bundy syndrome. That was a big thing.

He's sort of reverting back to his selfish ways. It's like, "Yeah!" He obviously wanted to be part of the CIA, he wants to find meaning in his life, and he doesn't realize that being a father is the thing in front of him that he's been missing his entire life. He's only guiding his actions based on what his father didn't do and did do, and he's like, "Whatever my dad did do, I'm going to do something different." That obviously doesn't turn out to be the best thing, because obviously, he's got a lot of things to fix in his own sense of self.

Castañeda Found Closure For Diego & Sir Reginald In Season 3

While some of their dysfunction stems from their individual personalities, the biggest root is the Hargreeves' relationship with Sir Reginald and the brutish way he went about raising the siblings. Though The Umbrella Academy season 4 offers a meaningful closure between him and Elliot Page's Viktor, the most estranged of the siblings from him, Castañeda wishes there would've been "a little bit more closure" with Sir Reginald, but feels he found this with Diego and his father in season 3:

David Castañeda: Yeah, I think personally looking back, I kind of wish that he would've had a little bit more closure with the dad in terms of maybe a moment, like in the CIA, there's this guy who sort of tells him, "I am the thing that you're searching for, and I'm telling you right now that it's not going to make you happy, because your kids are going to grow up and all you're going to hope for is that you can come home, and they're going to be kids again, and you can spend a night with your family."

It was a very touching moment. I also look back, and I'm like, "Oh man, I wish Hargreeves would've said that." But also, it's so out of Hargreeves' character. Hargreeves would not say that to Diego, at least, I feel like he wouldn't. But by the time season 3 happens, I think season 3, that's where I think his closure comes, because he tells me, "You've done well, my boy," when he sees Lila. And I think that moment, in itself, I found closure being like, "Okay, season 4 is more about him just dealing with being a family man."

Season 4's CIA Fight Created A Unique Hurdle For Castañeda

One of Diego's standout sequences in The Umbrella Academy season 4 comes during his and Luther's trip to the CIA, in which they learn the government agency has been infiltrated by members of The Keepers and have to fight multiple agents in order to escape. While Castañeda describes the fight as a "really fun" one to put together with the stunt team, he also recalls the unique challenge it presented as he put on weight to depict Diego's suburban life, and after losing weight for the shirtless portion of the fight, he indulged a little bit in unhealthy eating right after its initial filming:

David Castañeda: Yeah. So, obviously, Rick Forsayeth is our stunt guy, stunt coordinator, and we've been working with him on Umbrella since season 1. And Tommy Chang was our fight coordinator. He's been with us since season 1, also, so it's almost like a family. One of the things that Steve Blackman had said at the beginning of the season was, "There's going to be a massive fight at the CIA, and you're going to fight naked." So I was like, "Okay." And he's like, "And you start chubby. So tell me, do you want to keep the weight? Because then we can put you in a fat suit, or you could just keep the weight and just focus on getting bigger, just heftier."

And I said, "How about when he takes the marigold he starts losing the weight?" Because, like, for four months, I'm going to be really — I mean, I can eat unhealthy, I like it, but it gave me a trajectory to physically transform into like, "Oh, he's going to be back to season 1 Diego body wise. That was really fun, because obviously, Tom Hopper is extremely diligent in his health. So, Tom and I got to bond a lot over just being healthy and not drinking. By the time we got to the CIA, we got to see the space, they had brought up this whole fight, and then, once you rehearsed the fight in an open space, you go to the set, and now you're modifying the fight to fit the space.

Because sometimes, you can throw a kick here, or a punch here, and you're like, "Well, actually, I can't because there's a table here. Okay, let's change it. Let's move this." And it was quite awesome. I think the funniest part that I really enjoyed was like, "Okay, you're going to throw someone over this glass, and it's going to be this woman." I thought it was the funniest thing. [Laughs] I was like, "Wow, I'm throwing a woman over a glass, only wrestlers get to do this."

So, I got the opportunity to, in one take, kind of hit my chest, and I was like, "That's not going to make it in," and it did! They put that thing in, and I was like, "That is the funniest thing, Diego really thinks he's Ric Flair for a little bit." He's like, "Woo!" And yeah, it was awesome. We did it over two days. It was supposed to be one day, and I was like, "Great." We wrapped, I go home, I ate a whole pizza, I had pasta, I have ice cream, and then I got a call the next day saying, "By the way, we have to reshoot some things, so you're going to have to be shirtless again." And I was like, "Oh my God, I just went off." So then, they gave me another three weeks to reshoot, and we got it in and yeah, for me, for Diego, it's one of my favorite sequences.

Five & Lila's Twist Created An Interesting Question For The Umbrella Academy's Ending

Another interesting plot development to come from The Umbrella Academy season 4 is Five and Lila being trapped travelling through multiple dimensions and forming a romantic relationship over the course of seven-plus years before finding a way back home, with Lila looking to reconcile with Diego for the sake of their family, and Diego lashing out at Five. Castañeda explains that Diego's reaction comes from a "territorial" position, as his character finds it "hard to grasp" the length of time they were gone, while also recalling how this relationship affected the final scene involving their major sacrifice:

David Castañeda: I think it's protection. It's territorial. Him coming to an understanding that she was gone for seven years or seven years and change is hard to grasp that, to understand that, "Oh yeah, you didn't know that you were going to come back." Also, I think that's just a massive, in terms of sibling, code that you don't break, in terms of Diego's perception. The idea is, "You didn't have to go there with her. Her, I understand, because obviously, you were stranded. But you're my brother. How could you go to that space knowing that we were siblings?"

And it does add complexity to it, because yeah, if you were in that position not knowing if you're going to come back, what would you do? I think it's going to be divisive when people see that. Yeah, yeah, I think so too. I get it too. But also there was a big thing in the end where they were like, "Whose hand is she going to hold? Is she going to hold Diego's hand? Is she going to go Five's hand?" I think there was a big discussion back and forth at the end, because that's a sort of signifying, "Who's she choosing in the end?" And I'm kind of happy that she picked both. I can see why.

Castañeda Nearly Gave Up Waiting For An Answer To Ben's Death

After years of building it up, The Umbrella Academy season 4 also finally reveals the mystery surrounding Ben's original death, with Sir Reginald having killed both him and the original Jennifer after the former ignored his orders. In reflecting on this reveal, Castañeda humorously recalls feeling "I don't care" by the time of season 2, as showrunner Steve Blackman "never really wanted to give us an answer", though found himself "really happy" to not only finally learn the answer in season 4, but also how it tied into the overall storyline:

David Castañeda: I thought it was great. I mean, if I'm honest with you, it was always like, "What happened with Ben?" That was always the question in season 1, and by the time we got season 2, I was like, "I don't care. That's fine, he's dead." Steve never really wanted to give us an answer, and it was like, "Yeah, you'll find out. You'll find out, you'll find out." So, when that happened, I'm just really happy that it tied into the whole plot of season 4, that it did have big ramifications, and that his death meant saving the world. And this time, we chose to keep our brother, and through that, the end of the world comes and, in the end, obviously, the ultimate sacrifice for all of them.

Castañeda Was "In Tears" Watching The Series Finale (But Knows "People Are Going To Be Very Angry")

Though prior seasons of the show have seen the Hargreeves successfully save the world, even as they find themselves in a new predicament, The Umbrella Academy season 4's ending delivered the biggest shocker yet, in which the family and Lila have to sacrifice themselves by allowing the Ben-Jennifer lifeform to absorb all the marigold in them, resetting the timeline for good and wiping them out from existence. Castañeda acknowledges the anticipation that audiences might "be very angry" at watching their favorite characters' deaths, and though he himself was divided, he found it to be a beautiful one:

David Castañeda: Well, you sort of convince yourself that it's the right thing. When you're an actor, and you're trying to make it as grounded and as real as possible, you got to trust the journey. You got to trust the journey that the people that are writing this know exactly how they want it to end. But yeah, when I saw it, I was in tears. I was in tears, because it represented much more than just, "Oh, these characters are dying or disappearing or whatever."

It represented my six-seven years in this project. It represented the comfort that it gave people at home, and you're seeing them just sort of disappear. I'm sure there's going to be people that are going to be very angry. I'm already seeing it online, actually. Some people are like, "How dare you!" [Laughs] But you can't leave it open like that and then expect people to — you give them false hope. I guess that's the thing.

As far as the finale's mid-credits scene, in which a group of eight marigold flowers are seen growing, Castañeda believes that the intention behind the scene is "the interpretation of the cycle of life", offering a sense of closure that the characters' "spirit is still here", while also inviting audiences to revisit the earlier seasons if they feel upset by the finale:

David Castañeda: I think it's the interpretation of the cycle of life that, in the end, that's what we eventually become, right? We become the plants and the trees, and it's sort of a closure of like, "Oh, their spirit is still here. They might not be here, but the spirit of who they are is still here, and they were able to do what they were supposed to do, which is save the world and the ultimate sacrifice." And will someone come along and eat it? Maybe. But I always believe that if your main protagonist feels invincible, then there's nothing at stake. And hopefully, when people watch it, and they feel divisive, they can go back to season 1, and they watch season 1, and they're like, "Oh, there they are alive and having a good time."

Castañeda Would "100%" Return For A New Umbrella Academy Project

Though the show may be at an end and the Hargreeves siblings are gone, Castañeda remains open to the possibility of returning for a future Umbrella Academy spinoff or revival, if the opportunity arose. The star even recalled the initial discussions to have the final season be a movie instead, though thought there would be one major challenge in going forward with that plan:

David Castañeda: 100%. Yeah. Of course. I mean, that'd have to be a Universal and Netflix conversation. But if we had an opportunity to do a five or six, there was no way I'd say no. And I think there was a conversation a while back that they were going to make a movie out of it, that they were going to do a few seasons, and then the last one was going to be a film. I don't know how you can do a film with seven characters. I think that's hard. Can you really tell the character-driven stories that Umbrella's known for in two hours with all these characters?

Castañeda's Ballerina Character Is A "Father-Like" Protector (& He Was Wowed By The Stunt Team)

Looking to the future, Castañeda is part of the cast of the upcoming John Wick spinoff Ballerina, though his character details have remained under wraps up to this point. Though careful not to share anything specific regarding his character, the star did tease that he will be a "very father-like" protector in the film and shared his excitement at joining the Keanu Reeves-led franchise. Castañeda also went on to describe how his experience with the stunts in Ballerina compare to that of The Umbrella Academy, praising the attention to detail to "be extra perfect":

David Castañeda: Well, the way that I can only describe it is that he's a protector, and the way he protects is very father-like and very violent. That's the way I can put it. It's awesome, some of the stuff that we did, I was like, "Wow, you definitely know you're working in the John Wick universe when the stunt people and the people that are there are like, 'Oh my God, you guys did John Wick 4?'" It blows my mind still, but yeah, it was awesome.

And the fact that I didn't even get to audition for it, that blew my mind too. Chad Stahelski, I had a meeting with him and, because I guess he saw Umbrella, he was like, "I like the fact that when you get hit, I feel bad for you. And when you hit people, I feel good for you. And that's a rare quality, so why don't you come over here and let's do this movie?" And I was like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah." It was like, "Stop talking, I'll say yes." [Chuckles] But that's as far as I can say, think it comes out next year, and yeah, it'll be fun.

Well, I feel like when you're working on a TV show, Umbrella is not known for incredible stunts. They're known for incredible CGI, incredible story dynamics, and also, you're in a time crunch. You're working so fast, and when I got to work in the John Wick universe, stunts are heavily what they take pride in. So, if we didn't get the shot, we would spend every take until we got the perfect shot.

The detail on the action sequences was something that I felt really happy with, because you sort of feel like, "Oh great, I'm protected, because we're not going to move on until we get this specific shot." And, obviously, because it's a film, they're like, "Yeah, we can do that." In TV, you're in a time crunch. I mean, obviously in film, you're also in a time crunch, but with the resources, you've still got another nine episodes to shoot. You can't just be like, "We're going to spend the whole day shooting this thing." Ballerina was like, "It was perfect, but I want it to be extra perfect, so let's do it again."

About The Umbrella Academy Season 4

The Hargreeves siblings have scattered after the climactic showdown at the Hotel Oblivion led to a complete reset of their timeline. Stripped of their powers, each is left to fend for themselves and find a new normal — with wildly varying degrees of success. Yet the trappings of their uncanny new world prove too hard to ignore for very long. Their father Reginald, alive and well, has stepped out of the shadows and into the public eye, overseeing a powerful and nefarious business empire. A mysterious association known as The Keepers holds clandestine meetings believing the reality they’re living in is a lie and a great reckoning is coming. As these strange new forces conspire around them, the Umbrella Academy must come together one last time — and risk upsetting the shaky peace they’ve all endured so much to secure — to finally set things right.

Check out our previous Umbrella Academy season 4 red carpet interviews with the cast and crew!

The Umbrella Academy season 4 is now streaming on Netflix.

The Umbrella Academy

4.0

TV-MA

Adventure

Comedy

Action

Where to Watch

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The Umbrella Academy is based on the comic book of the same name created by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá. The Hargreeves — collectively known as The Umbrella Academy — were born with superpowers, and their adoptive father utilized their abilities. However, as they grew older, the siblings grew apart as they dealt with their trauma. They are brought back together after their father dies and Five returns from the future with grave news: The world will end, and The Umbrella Academy has to stop it before it happens.

Cast

Colm Feore , Cazzie David , Genesis Rodriguez , Robert Sheehan , Aidan Gallagher , Elliot Page , Emmy Raver-Lampman , Jordan Claire Robbins , Jake Epstein , Mary J. Blige , David Castaneda , Justin Cornwell , Justin H. Min , Britne Oldford , Adam Godley , Tom Hopper , Javon 'Wanna' Walton , Ritu Arya , Cameron Britton , Sheila McCarthy

Release Date

February 15, 2019

Seasons

4

Streaming Service(s)

Netflix

Franchise(s)

The Umbrella Academy

Writers

Steve Blackman

Directors

Jeremy Webb

Showrunner

Steve Blackman

Main Genre

Adventure