The official Instagram page for Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy looks to be editing old post descriptions to remove gendered references to Elliot Page‘s Vanya Hargreeves.
Two post descriptions from the series’ Instagram page were recently discovered to have been changed to replace she/her pronouns with gender-neutral ones. In the first post, showing a stylized graphic of Vanya and her sister Allison, the previous description, “sisters do what sisters do,” was changed to “sibs do what sibs do.” The second, a pop-art image of Vanya’s face, originally had the caption “her eyes see the world in an extraordinary way” — this now reads, “these eyes see the world in an extraordinary way.” Both captions were edited roughly eight weeks ago, while the images were originally posted in summer 2020.
Vanya’s Season 3 gender identity has been a topic of discussion since December 2020, when Elliot Page came out publicly as transgender and non-binary. Page now uses he/they pronouns, indicating he is comfortable being referred to as “he” or “they.” Soon after his announcement, it was confirmed that Page would continue to play Vanya in future seasons of The Umbrella Academy. Vanya has historically been a cisgender woman in the show, and insiders close to the production initially claimed there were no plans to change the character’s gender. However, this may no longer be the case, as these edited Instagram posts suggest Vanya may indeed drop she/her pronouns in the upcoming season.
Interestingly, there are still several posts on the show’s Instagram page that use “she” or “her” when referring to Vanya — it’s unclear whether these will be similarly changed in the future or if the edited posts are outliers.
Page debuted as Vanya Hargreeves in Season 1 of The Umbrella Academy. The series centers on the super-powered Hargreeves family: Vanya, Luther, Diego, Klaus, Allison, Five and Ben, adopted and raised by billionaire Reginald Hargreeves. After several years away from home, the children are brought together once more, and chaos ensues. Vanya’s repressed energy powers emerge in a devastating way in the first season, triggering the apocalypse, and the Hargreeves travel back in time to narrowly escape the destruction. In Season 2, Vanya suffers from amnesia and is taken in by a tragic housewife and her neurodivergent son. Vanya rediscovers her unique ability and, with the help of her siblings, manages to control her powers and prevent yet another apocalypse. The Umbrella Academy Season 3 wrapped filming in August 2021 and is expected to drop on Netflix sometime in 2022.
Outside of The Umbrella Academy, Page is set to write a memoir recounting his experience coming out as transgender while working in the film industry. The book, titled Pageboy, will be published by Flatiron Books in 2023.
Source: Instagram, via Twitter
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