In timely news, given Euphoria just bowed out for its second season, one of the show’s younger rising stars, 15-year-old Javon Walton, has just been added to the extensive cast sheet for The Umbrella Academy Season 3.
Netflix revealed the casting in a tweet timed some days after the broadcasting of Euphoria‘s finale, at a time the internet is speaking a lot about Walton for reasons best left unspoiled. (If you know, you know.) “I heard a rumor…that Javon Walton is joining the cast of Umbrella Academy Season 3 — and I’m happy to confirm that it is true!” The tweet is paired with a new publicity shot of the young performer, who still rocks the signature eyebrow slit of his Euphoria character, Ashtray, the de facto younger brother of series co-lead Fez (Angus Cloud).
Walton‘s stock has exploded since appearing on Euphoria, climbing the ranks of fan favoritism since the series started in 2019, but not least in the most recent season, in which his gun-toting, drug dealing tot comes very much under the spotlight. (Or, you might say, the laser beam.) Who he might be playing in the Netflix series is yet to be determined, but fans are already speculating. “Image he plays like Diego’s son,” said one Twitter user, referring to David Castañeda‘s character in the hit show. Javon himself responded to Netflix‘s announcement in the most succinct of manners: “Let’s go,” he said from his Twitter account, wherein he describes himself as a “boxer, actor, and future world champ!”
As to what might happen in the new season of The Umbrella Academy, and where the young star might fit into all of it… we’re unsure. What we do know is that it’ll tilt away from the story of the graphic novels, “running adjacent” to them. Collider spoke to one of the series’ stars, Emmy Raver-Lampman, who called it “massive,” elaborating as follows:
“We’re running adjacent to the graphic novels, but I don’t think Steve is beholden at all to the graphic novels, by needing it to be something that’s verbatim, it needing to reflect exactly what’s happening in the graphic novels and what’s happening on screen. But I do know that Gerard and Steve are in constant communication. So, I don’t doubt that they both know what the other has ideas in what the other is thinking. I think there will always be a connection there, but the further we get into The Umbrella Academy, the TV show, I think it’s finding its own way. It’s finding its own route, which is exciting. … This third season, we’re really, really doing our own thing, and I think the show has found some really cool plots to follow and explore.”
Either way, our best of luck to Walton. We’re sure this whole experience is…mind-blowingly surreal.
The Umbrella Academy seasons one and two are streaming now on Netflix, and Season 3 is set to drop later this year.
via Collider