‘The Umbrella Academy’ comic book artist Gabriel Bá described the TV adaptation’s portrayal of Ben Hargreeves as one of his favorite differences from the original material during a new chat at the final season’s Los Angeles premiere. Justin H. Min also shared his thoughts on playing the character during the event.
The actor told ComicBook that playing Ben was ‘absolutely’ a freeing experience due to lack of source material compared to others. “I remember the first season talking to the other cast, they felt so much pressure like, ‘Oh my God, this iconic hit.’ I was like, ‘I’m pretty good guys. I can do what I want,’” he explained.
“And it was so nice to really build this character with Steve [Blackman] from the ground up, and to see all of its changes and evolutions over the years it’s been so thrilling, especially as an actor. It’s like how many times do you get an opportunity to be on the same show with the same character, but play completely kind of different people?”
Ben joined the series in Season 1 as one of seven children with special abilities adopted by Reginald Hargreeves for summoning eldritch creatures through a portal in his body. His death in the Jennifer Incident triggered the end of the Umbrella Academy.
The show’s fourth and final season, which debuted on August 8, revealed the details behind the original Ben’s death after exploring several alternate timelines in previous seasons.
“The Hargreeves siblings have scattered after the climactic showdown at the Hotel Oblivion led to a complete reset of their timeline,” read the official synopsis for the final season. “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.”
Though the Netflix series recently wrapped up its story, the comic book saga is far from over. Gabriel Bá hinted that the fourth volume of the comics is still in the works.
