After its spectacular debut on Netflix last year, The Umbrella Academy is back with more misadventures from the royally screwed-up Hargreaves family.
This time, the supernaturally talented group are shot back to the 1960s in a bid to prevent the nuclear annihilation they initially caused at the end of season one.
Naturally, nothing is straight forward for the Hargreaves, as the siblings all choose to hit the past as hard as they can before they set upon the difficult task of saving humanity, with Robert Sheehan’s character, the drugged-up party hard Klaus Hargreaves, doing far better in the swinging 60s than he ever did in present day.
But while the scene-stealing séance superficially seems to be having a great time leading an army of devoted followers, underneath the glossy veneer lies a traumatised and suffering figure that is only exacerbated when Klaus is reunited with a familiar face.
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Sheehan laughs when questioned about trying to strike the balance between misery and humour while playing Klaus.
“It’s really possible find tragedy funny when it's happening,” he tells Standard Online. “Comedy and tragedy are all wrapped up in the same person, you know?
“You can choose to be that feeling, or you can choose to laugh about it. And I think when you're used to being kind of thrust into traumatic situations as often as Klaus did with his father growing up, you have to laugh at it.”
Referring to his background, Sheehan added: “I think Irish people are good at laughing at adversity. We use laughter to soothe the wound of adversity, because culturally and historically, we’ve been through it."
This fine balance of laughing in the face of your enemies is something that comes fairly easily to Sheehan, who became a household name after starring as the hugely irritating Nathan in 2009 cult superhero classic Misfits.
While Sheehan obviously looks back at the role in fondness, he isn’t keen to ever revisit Nathan in the future, and adds he worries about the ongoing trend of “nostalgia culture” – looking back at the past with rose tinted glasses to glossing over its various issues.
It was something that also worried Sheehan when he saw the direction the second series of The Umbrella Academy was taking, particularly as the show mixes its usual unique, zany themes, with the weighty issues of the civil rights movement.
“I was weary about us going into [racism],” he said. “Because The Umbrella Academy is such a departure from our world. I wondered if we tackled the subject of civil rights, it just wouldn’t feel like the show.
“I'm proven wrong by [creator] Steve Blackman because they'd managed to do the civil rights, they managed to make it wholly weighty and emotional, while still being very, very Umbrella Academy, with a very Umbrella Academy conflict in the middle of that conflict.
“The storyline will definitely carry more poignancy because of the times we're in because of George Floyd and the right movements that have that have sprung up as a result, justifiably.
“It is like 1963 again. The fight continues. It must be exhausting. It must be really, really, really exhausting to feel, you know, for something like [George Floyd] to happen. I feel like the clock go back 50 years, you know, so people are weary.
“I think, retrospectively, [the series] definitely carries more poignancy. Big time.”
Sheehan has come a long way since he first started out, acting in his home time of Portaloise in Ireland, working in a local theatre group before gaining recognition in 2009 film Cherrybomb alongside Rupert Grint.
He recognises that there has been a recent surge of interest in Irish talent more recently, citing the country’s tumultuous and divisive history as what spurs the greatness of its actors.
“There’s always been plenty of talent in Ireland,” he says.
“I met Prince William quite recently and he asked me why Ireland produces actors, writers and producers. I explained that all of the fabric of society of Ireland, even from the pre-Christian era, was the power of the spoken word.
“Normal People was fantastic. I had no idea who Paul Mescal was before this. It’s just an incredibly capable drama.
“But we’re always going to produce talented actors in Ireland. All of that is deep within our cultural psyche.”
The Umbrella Academy is available to stream now on Netflix