Summary
- Aidan Gallagher skillfully portrays the older mindset of Five, despite being much younger physically.
- Five’s unique aging process, due to time traveling, sets him apart from his siblings in The Umbrella Academy.
- Gallagher’s impressive acting as a boy trapped in a man’s body enhances the dynamic of the show’s characters.
In The Umbrella Academy, Five is supposed to be older than 40, but actor Aidan Gallagher is decades his junior. Gallagher easily depicted the mannerisms of a character who is mentally older but physically younger than him. This feat is impressive since Five is supposed to remain around the same age throughout all seasons of The Umbrella Academy, yet Gallagher’s appearance doesn’t change. Gallagher’s age and acting ability still fool audiences that Five is a middle-aged man stuck in a 13-year-old’s body despite Aidan Gallagher being born in 2003.
Number Five’s young age compared to his siblings was because he was a time-traveling assassin who worked for The Commission, an organization attempting to maintain the continuity of the space-time continuum. His young appearance was due to his attempt to time travel at too young an age before he had gotten to grips with his powers. Five, at 13 years old, traveled to an apocalyptic future, setting up the events for season 1. From this moment, Five always looks young because he cannot age, and he has become an increasingly mature personality that juxtaposes his appearance.
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The Umbrella Academy: Why Five Doesn’t Have A Real Name
Every one of the Hargreeves siblings has a real name other than their number, except for Aidan Gallagher’s Five. Here’s why he’s overlooked.
How Old Is Aidan Gallagher
Birthdate: September 18, 2003
Five’s real-life actor, Aidan Gallagher, is already in his 20s, being born on September 18, 2003. However, his youthful appearance allowed him to continue to play the character to the end without affecting his role in Umbrella Academy. However, Aidan’s real-life pursuits made him a perfect candidate for an actor required to impersonate a character decades his senior. When he was just 14, Aidan was named a Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations. His speeches and real-life online activism must have made the transition to a middle-aged man smooth.
Any aging was explained by his world-weary attitude based on what he had gone through.
The Umbrella Academy season 3 was delayed due to the onset of COVID-19. Since Aidan Gallagher was 14 when he first appeared in the show, the years lost to the delays ran the risk of Gallagher being a less suitable actor for the role lest they used anti-aging CGI. However, given The Umbrella Academy only had one more season, Gallagher barely reached his 20s when the show ended. Any aging was explained by his world-weary attitude based on what he had gone through.
How Old Was Aidan Gallagher When Umbrella Academy Finished?
Aidan Was 20 When The Final Season Was Filmed
The Umbrella Academy season 4 was announced on August 25, 2022, along with the news that it would be the Netflix series’ final installment. The final season began filming after that, with much of the filming done in 2023. The show then premiered on Netflix on August 8, 2024. This means that Aidan Gallagher was 19 when the show was renewed, 20 during the filming, and 21 when the episodes dropped on Netflix. There were only six years of difference between Gallagher and Five in the final season.
Aidan Gallagher Played An Older Man To Perfection
Five Is Actually 58 Years Old
Character | Actor | Actor’s Age In Final Season |
---|---|---|
Luther | Tom Hopper | 38 |
Diego | David Castaneda | 33 |
Allison | Emmy Raver-Lampman | 34 |
Klaus | Robert Sheehan | 35 |
Five | Aidan Gallagher | 20 |
Ben | Justin H. Min | 36 |
Vanya / Viktor | Elliot Page | 34 |
The case of Five is different from the other members of The Umbrella Academy. They were all born on the same day and should be the same age. However, Five is much older since he has time-traveled for years. Thanks to time travel, which started when he was 13, he lived for 45 more years by hopping around time, but his body never aged. Meanwhile, his “siblings” remained in their own time, so they aged normally. Five looks 13, but he is 58, making him much older than everyone else.
There is also a major age difference here. Five’s siblings were all played by actors in their late 20s and early 30s. Aidan was a young teenager when he started the show. By the end. the youngest of the actors who played his siblings was 33, while Aidan was 20. However, Gallagher had to act older, as he was almost 20 years older than his siblings when they met up again. He had to act older, and Gallagher did it perfectly. Somehow, as a teenager, he had the spirit of a middle-aged man in a child’s body.
This had to be one of the most difficult acting jobs on Umbrella Academy, but Five stole the scene almost every time he appeared. The entire Netflix fantasy series was fantastic, but Gallagher made it even better, taking an iconic character from the comics and making him even better on the small screen. By the time the end came around, he was a boy who became a man but never had any human connection, and for a young actor, Aidan Gallagher delivered a superb performance.