Netflix's 'Umbrella Academy' creator on how he used the show's budget 'more effectively' in season 2 and his plans for future seasons

• Netflix's "Umbrella Academy" showrunner Steve Blackman talked with Business Insider about how season two used the show's budget "more effectively."
• Blackman teased plans for future seasons and said he already knows what season three would be about if Netflix renews it.
• He also discussed the deviations from the comic book source material by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá.

Warning: This post contains spoilers for "The Umbrella Academy" season two

When Netflix's comic-book series "The Umbrella Academy" debuted last year, it was an instant hit.

Netflix said that the show, based on the Dark Horse comic of the same name by writer Gerard Way and artist Gabriel Bá, was watched by 45 million member households in its first month of release, making it one of its most popular shows ever.

So expectations are high for season two, which debuted on the streaming giant on Friday. But showrunner Steve Blackman said that the show's popularity didn't change his plans for the second season. He always knew that he wanted it to be bigger in scope.

"The goal was always to step it up a little more but without losing what makes our show entertaining," Blackman told Business Insider.

Critics are already loving the season, which has a 92% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. With the show's popularity, it would be surprising if Netflix didn't renew it for a third season — and Blackman already knows what it would be about.

In his interview with Business Insider, Blackman teased future plans and talked about how season two deviates from the comic book.

Read the full interview below:

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Travis Clark: The scope of this season feels bigger. After the popularity of the first season, did anything change from your initial plans for season two?

Steve Blackman: I had a pretty good sense of what season two was as I was finishing season one before we had even gotten picked up [for a second season]. I wanted the storytelling to feel bigger in season two and we stepped it up with the VFX and honed our craft a little more with that. And I think we told bigger, more rounded stories. We dealt with bigger issues this year, like what it would be like to be a person of color in the South [in 1960s America] and homophobia in that time period.

So the goal was always to step it up a little more but without losing what makes our show entertaining as this wonderful show about family dysfunction.

Clark: You mentioned that you stepped it up with VFX ... did Netflix throw more money at you after the first season was so popular?

Blackman: [laughs] I think there was a bit of an increase but we used our money more effectively. In the first season we were testing things out and trying different things, but once we got the rhythm of the show, in season two we were more effective in how we did things.

The Dallas street [the setting for much of the season, including the restaurant where the sit-in protest takes place] was actually shot in a town in northern Ontario. It has no VFX treatment, it really looks like that. We just did physical changes on the storefronts. But we decided that if we could find a place like that where we didn't have to spend a lot of money, we could spend that money more on A.J. Carmichael, young Pogo, and other things.

We did actually go to Dallas to film on the Grassy Knoll, so there's obviously VFX treatment in the Kennedy motorcade, but the setting is all real. We were very careful about how we spent our money this year.

Clark: Allison's [played by Emmy Raver-Lampman] story [as a Civil Rights activist] this season takes on new meaning after recent events. Has that been on your mind leading up to the premiere of the season?

Blackman: Yeah. We wrote the show a year ago, but I knew we couldn't tell a story set in Dallas in 1963 and not address the racial issues and homophobia of the time period. We did an enormous amount of research, especially for the sit-in scene. It wasn't based on any one sit-in, it was an amalgamation of many sit-ins, but it was an emotional few days to shoot that scene. We wanted it to feel real and to tell an honest story about this time period and racial injustice.

Clark: One of my favorite aspects of the show is the musical cues. Were there any that were your favorites and how did those come to be?

Blackman: Music is a big part of my life and I see it as another character in this show. On most shows, they shoot it and then put music in afterwards. I pick the songs ahead of time. I encourage the writers to include them in the scripts. If I think of a song, I'll write a scene because of that song. So I know pretty much ahead of time all the music that will be used in the season and we like to use music that will subvert expectations.

For instance, the Backstreet Boys song probably shouldn't fit in that fight scene and that sequence, but it does magically work. It was fun to think of what lyric Klaus would steal from a song in the future and tell his followers "here's an inspirational quote of mine." Those are some of my favorites but I love all the music.

Clark: I'm a big fan of the comic but respect the deviations the show takes from it. I wanted to walk through some of those and how they came to be, like the Sissy and Harlan storyline, introducing Lila, and even Diego's powers, which aren't really explained in the comic but in the final episode we see him slow down those bullets.

Blackman: The source material is a great springboard and I have a great relationship with Gerard [Way, the writer] and Gabriel [Bá, the artist]. But we realized early on that it couldn't be a carbon copy. There were a lot of things we couldn't afford to do even with a feature budget. They've been kind of enough to allow me to deviate, as a TV creator, and do what I want to do. I'm always extremely respectful of the graphic novels. Like, I couldn't not do A.J. Carmichael this year. That was something I was striving to do and the VFX company Weta came through with that.

But it's a TV world and it's necessary for us to create some other characters. Lila was a lot of fun, because the premise of the comic was that there were 43 mothers out there who gave birth to 43 [superpowered] kids. It was great to meet another one of those kids this year, and it's fair to say we could meet some others.

With Diego, his powers aren't really defined, but we thought "if you can curve and bend metallic objects like knives, why can't you do that to bullets?" But all of their powers are still evolving. They never finished their training with their dad because the family broke up. I think as long as the show is on the air we're going to show that their powers are always evolving and they're discovering new bits of their powers.

Clark: Especially Vanya's [played by Ellen Page] powers, and her story really goes in a new direction this season. How did the relationship with Sissy come to be? That's the heart of the season and you realize that by the final episode. Did you always know, even looking back to season one, that you wanted to flesh out Vanya's storyline with this new character?

Blackman: Her love story in season one wasn't a real love story. In season two, her memory is gone and she's coming into her own, so I wanted her to have a beautiful love story, but I needed to complicate it, too. Being gay or queer in 1963 was a criminal offense, but also, Sissy has a family and a kid who can't speak, which is similar to my son. My son's on the spectrum.

Ellen and I talked a lot about the LGBT storyline and how to tell a sweet love story but with all of these layers to it. And all of their powers come from something inside of them and Vanya inadvertently gives Harlan [Sissy's son] her powers when she saves his life. So the origin of their powers is something we may explore later on, too.

Clark: Did Ellen and the other actors give a lot of feedback for their characters' storylines this season?

Blackman: I always welcome their input. I talk with all of them about their storylines before and during the season. Ellen had many thoughts, all good, and a lot of that story we crafted together, especially the ending. Ellen really wanted to tell a story that still had hope in the end and wasn't a tragic queer love story. [Vanya and Sissy] aren't together in the end, but had they not separated they would have stayed together for many years. But yeah, the ending is definitely something Ellen and I talked about a lot and I think that's what made it beautiful in the end.

Clark: You've mentioned a few things you'd want to explore in later seasons and season two ends on a big cliffhanger. Have you heard from Netflix about a third season?

Blackman: We haven't gotten picked up yet but I definitely know what it would be about. My fingers are crossed.

Clark: Do you have a longterm vision for the series or taking it one season at a time?

Blackman: I'm taking it one season at a time. With that said, I know Gerard has many volumes in his mind of what he wants to do and he's working on volume four [of the comic series] now. So as long as Gerard has ideas for the future, I like to think we could do at least four seasons. But I know season three and I'll worry about the next season as it comes.