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French fans upset at how Elliot Page got dubbed in the new season of “Umbrella Academy”

Umbrella Academy season 3 publicity shot
Photo: Netflix

Many French fans of Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy are upset by what they say is poor dubbing of Elliot Page’s character Viktor Hargreeves in the show’s third season.

Viktor Hargreeves presented as a woman in the first two seasons of the show, and for those seasons Jessica Monceau – a cisgender woman – was Page’s voice in French.

Related: “Friends” creator regrets treatment of transgender character

In season 3, which was filmed after Page came out as trans in 2020, Viktor Hargreeves goes on a journey of self-exploration and also transitions in the second episode of the season. Throughout the entire season, he’s voiced by Jean-Baptiste Maunier, a cis man.

“I’m very proud today to have entered the passionate world of dubbing that I have been dreaming about since childhood,” Maunier wrote on Instagram. “I feel lucky to be the French voice of Elliot Page in The Umbrella Academy on Netflix.”

Fans’ reactions on social media were more mixed. One irate fan said that Netflix didn’t “respect consistency and the voice of the actor.”

Several said that the change was too sudden – Maunier was Page’s voice in episode 1 when Viktor Hargreeves transitions in the second episode.

“I think Jessica Monceau could have done it,” one fan wrote.

One fan just said that Maunier was a bad choice.

Another questioned other production issues around how Page got dubbed, like how the words got lined up with Page’s lips.

The third season of the show was already written before Page came out and had to be re-written to include his transition, something that show creator Steve Blackman thinks was handled well.

“We wanted it to not be the story of the season,” he said. “We wanted it to be a story, or a part of the story.”

“We wanted to tell a story that was really pro-trans, authentic, sensitive, and show that families can accept trans people in their lives, and it does not have to be a negative thing, as it’s often portrayed in the media,” he continued. “That was paramount. I talked with Elliot and [writer Thomas Page McBee] through the whole thing, and I’m really proud of how we did it. I thought it came across in a way that we all felt good about.”

 

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