castings

Mary J. Blige to Play a Sadistic Time-Traveling Assassin in The Umbrella Academy

Mary J. Blige. Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

She’s an Oscar nominee. She’s a recording artist. And now she’ll be a time-traveling assassin. Netflix announced today that Mary J. Blige will join the cast of its forthcoming series The Umbrella Academy, adapted from the comic and graphic novel by My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way. Ellen Page has already been announced as a star of the show, which follows a dysfunctional family of adopted superheroes trying to solve the mystery of their father’s death. They’ll also have to survive the family in-fighting brought about by their conflicting powers and personalities if they hope to succeed. Page will play Vanya (known as the White Violin, the only one of the children without abilities), and Blige will play Cha-Cha, a contract killer described as “unorthodox,” “sadistic,” and “sociopathic,” and who only seems to like two things: torturing people and her partner, Hazel. She sounds like a scream!

Mary J. Blige to Play an Assassin in The Umbrella Academy