The Umbrella Academy showrunner calls antisemitism accusations “hurtful,” “incorrect”
By Corey Smith
The second season of The Umbrella Academy got rave reviews, but has come under fire alleged antisemitism. Showrunner Steve Blackman responds:
The second season of Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy came out not long ago to good reviews across the board, but there’s also been some controversy. Echoing concerns made by Board of Deputies of British Jews after season 1 aired, some on Twitter have accused the show of peddling in anti-Semitic tropes and conspiracy theories, according to Exclaim.
at the time, the handler was the head of the commission, a secret organization whose morals are unknown and were possibly bringing about the apocalypse.
— gab (@gabsaporta) August 2, 2020
read up on “the protocols of the elders of zion,” which in short was an antisemitic text that was heavily spread in the early 1900s saying the jews were secretly planning world domination. it caused lots of antisemitism. the nazis used it
— gab (@gabsaporta) August 2, 2020
the thing is, the handler is also shown fluent in a lot of other languages. in s2, she speaks mandarin and swedish with ease. however, that raises the point — why did she speak yiddish?
— gab (@gabsaporta) August 2, 2020
i could have just chalked it up to bad decision making if it had just been season 1, but after season 1 premiered, the show pretty publicly came under fire for implying that the handler was jewish.
— gab (@gabsaporta) August 2, 2020
here is another thing. at one point, diego mentions the “lizard people” who are going to kill JFK. the lizard people, like most other conspiracy theories, is antisemitic. you can read up on that here. https://t.co/W6PPqv8Hw7
— gab (@gabsaporta) August 2, 2020
so, when you put these things together, it definitely comes across as somewhat suspicious. HOWEVER, in my opinion it goes a bit far to call it nazi propaganda. i do think it spreads antisemitic propaganda, but calling it nazi propaganda feels too far.
— gab (@gabsaporta) August 2, 2020
So the accusations seem to come down to: 1) the show implying that the Handler, who is the primary villain of the show, is Jewish because she sometimes speaks Yiddish, and 2) the show referencing that the Commission — the time-hopping organization the Handler is in charge of — is run by lizard people, which recalls (purposely or not) a popular conspiracy theory about Jewish world domination.
Now, The Umbrella Academy showrunner Steve Blackman has responded to the accusations with a statement:
"The accusation of antisemitism in The Umbrella Academy is hurtful and, more importantly, factually incorrect. I wrote these episodes, created the character, and am myself Jewish. While I understand audiences sometimes receive things in a different way than creators intend, The Handler was not created as an anti-Semitic character. The Handler speaks every language, including Swedish, Mandarin, Yiddish, and English as we saw this season, and The Commission is not an evil organization; they do not control finances, governments, or the media. The only thing they control – and more importantly, protect – is the timeline of our fictional Umbrella Academy universe."
The Handler, for what it’s worth, does not appear in the original graphic novels by Gerard Way, but was created by Blackman for the show. It’s true that she does speak a lot of languages on the show, not just Yiddish.
The Commission, on the other hand, is taken directly from the novels. As run by the Handler, they’re definitely an organization up to no good, but at the of the second season, the show implies that things could be different under new management.
What do you all make of this?
Next. Easter Egg from The Umbrella Academy season 2 points the way to season 3. dark
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