The Umbrella Academy Crew Had To Grow This Odd Vegetable For Shooting
Gerard Way's graphic novel series and subsequent Netflix show "The Umbrella Academy" is notable for its eccentricities. The series follows the seven foster children of emotionally unavailable father-figure Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore), who adopts them after a mass birth of 43 babies at the same time. All from different mothers, the Hargreeves children grow up to find they have supernatural abilities spanning from Klaus (Robert Sheehan) communicating with the dead to Allison's (Emmy Raver-Lampman) mind control. With such an unusual upbringing, it's no wonder that adults find them in strange situations down the line.
Season 2 is full of odd circumstances that bring the siblings together in Dallas in the '60s. At the end of Season 1, Five (Aidan Gallagher) is unable to stop Vanya (Elliot Page) from ending the world and he transports all the siblings back in time in attempt to avert the apocalypse before it happens. Though the series has a number of visual effects to aid in depicting the siblings' powers, there are some practical effects as well. One practical effect in particular ensured that the crew had to grow a specific vegetable to make the scene work.
The crew made a real-life crop circle for one scene
Practical effects have their uses. That is how Stephen Surjik went about directing Episode 3 of Season 2. After landing in Dallas, Vanya has no memory of her past and is unaware of her powers. She only knows that someone is trying to kill her when she is chased through a cornfield. Five finds her shortly after and leads her through the cornfield. Many people, including Avery Kaplan who writes for comics culture blog The Beat, were surprised to find that not only was this shot practical, but the corn was grown in a three week time span to obtain the shot. Kaplan interviewed Surjik about the process.
"All of the corn they used in that gigantic shot where we went up into the air and did the twenty acres of corn, that was all real," the director confirmed. As Vanya and Five walk through the field, they find a large "crater" that Vanya created with her explosion. That was accomplished by devoted crew members of "The Umbrella Academy."
"You know, it almost looks like a crop circle, really, but we didn't use boards to push it down or anything, the crew did it by hand ... god bless 'em!" Surjik complimented. The results were immense, providing a beautiful shot of Five and Vanya looking at the damage she had done. With practical effects making some films more impressive, this decision clearly paid off.