The Umbrella Academy: Why Diego Never Uses His Superpowers

In The Umbrella Academy, Diego barely uses his powers, and the reason why speaks to how the character is written in two ways. David Castañeda’s troubled hero plays number two to Luther’s golden child in the Academy hierarchy under the watchful, often over-zealous guiding hand of Sir Reginald Hargreeves, the group’s adoptive father. He is impulsive, passionate and reckless and as close to the group’s version of Batman as any character comes. He’s also got the biggest point to prove of the entire group, which is why he limits his superpower use.

In the Netflix series, Diego is a different character to his comics counterpart in his superpowered abilities, because the show chose to leave out his power of breathing underwater (thus rendering his nickname “The Kraken” redundant). But his passionate spirit and his dynamic with the rest of the Hargreeves family is mostly the same. He has grown up in Luther’s shadow and his commitment to doing the right thing often puts him at odds with the most moral thing to do. Crucially, his desire to fight for that justice determined that he had remained the only active Umbrella Academy hero after each of his siblings either became unwilling or unable to carry on. For Diego, that role remained defining.

The reason for that commitment is exactly the same reason why Diego’s powers are rarely on show. He was driven by a burning need to prove a point to his father, Sir Reginald, who had seemingly spent all of Diego’s life pitting him against his brother, Luther. As the show – and particularly parts of the second season – showed, the younger Hargreeves would treat Diego with near-contempt, offering some insight not only into why Diego had such profound insecurities but also why he was so close to his mother. His crippling self-doubt and need to prove himself are exactly why he barely uses his superpowers in the show.

As David Castañeda told Digital Spy, there was a conscious effort to ground Diego’s powers, as show-runner Steve Blackman sought a more realistic tone for the Netflix show. The actor believed that Diego having “no real supernatural powers” beyond his knife-throwing would mean the audience could relate to him on a more human level. Which is exactly the point with Diego: he has the most relatable human issues, particularly for anyone who recognizes the pressures of being a middle child. Couple that natural competition with the very real dynamic of conflict Sir Reginald encouraged between Diego and Luther and you have a recipe for the former’s special brand of volatility and self-doubt. It was that cocktail that saw him determined to stop JFK’s assassination single-handedly.

In that context, Diego’s reluctance to rely on his superpowers makes even more sense. Diego’s humanity isn’t just his most accessible trait for the audience, it’s also his own weapon in his internalized battle with Luther and his father. Because Luther’s power are linked most to his physical appearance, which is the most obviously superhuman, it’s natural that Diego’s response would be to lean into his humanity. Refusing to over-rely on his supernatural powers and instead trying to prove his mettle is almost like Diego trying to prove that he is enough. And as The Umbrella Academy has continued to reveal, the Hargreeves’ past treatment at the hands of Sir Reginald set each of them up to fundamentally feel like they weren’t, culminating in the second season’s final twist that their father was so disgusted by what he saw in his future children that he replaced them entirely with the Sparrow Academy.

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Simon Gallagher
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Simon is a veteran editor who has been writing online since 2010 – long before anyone wanted to read his work. He loves Clueless. Like, a lot.

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