Y: The Last Man Heads to FX on Hulu

Y: The Last Man could prove to be a bellwether TV project… and not just for adaptations of comic books depicting an apocalyptic world in which the entire male gender – save for one survivor – has been eradicated from a global catastrophe, leaving a society run entirely by women. (That’s a genre, right?)

The series is based on the DC Comics series by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra, depicting an intriguing sociological sandbox, certain to brandish an array of relevant topical themes. Nick Grad and Eric Schrier, Presidents of Original Programming, FX Networks and FX Productions made the announcement that Y: The Last Man has been ordered to series during the 2019 TCA winter press tour.

The project has experienced some turbulence behind the scenes on its way to television, however. Y: The Last Man was originally earmarked for 2020 on FX but then underwent a creative reshuffling with Eliza Clark (Animal Kingdom) replacing Michael Green (Logan, American Gods, Blade Runner 2049) and Aida Mashaka Croal (Luke Cage, Turn) as showrunner and Ben Schnetzer replacing Barry Keoghan as the lead.

Then production on the show was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now FX has revealed to potential advertisers during its upfront presentation, that Y: The Last Man will premiere on “FX on Hulu” like other FX shows Devs and Mrs. America. Other FX projects like A Teacher and The Old Man are destined for FX on Hulu as well.

Here is everything else we know about the long-awaited series.

Y: The Last Man Release Date

Prior to all the showrunner changes and real world catastrophes, FX seemed pretty confident that Y: The Last Man would arrive in 2020. Now that seems like a fallow hope. Expect Y to air sometime in 2021.

Y: The Last Man Cast

Amber Tamblyn will serve as the star of FX’s Y: The Last Man. She is set to play Mariette Callows, daughter of the U.S. president. Much like real-life Camelot-building political offspring, Mariette has been groomed for a career in politics, tasked with upholding her father’s conservative values.

Tamblyn, known from The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants films, as well as television runs on Joan of Arcadia, House and Two and a Half Men, comes into the series off film roles in 2018 drama Nostalgia and 2017 comedy Girlfriend’s Day.

The news arrives after the recent reveal of the supporting cast members and their characters (all info and descriptions come via THR).

Ben Schnetzer (The Book Thief) will play Yorick, the “last man” of the show, “a young man who is quick to use humor to deflect from his problems who may be the lone male survivor of a worldwide plague.” Previously Barry Keoghan (Dunkirk) was cast in the role but is no longer a part of the project.

Diane Lane is Jennifer Brown, “a junior senator in her first term who has already made a name for herself in political circles for her willingness to put personal ideals above politics, she is also the mother of Yorick and Hero Brown.”

Imogen Poots is Hero Brown, “a tough and confident EMT who nurses a deep emotional trauma that often leads her to cross personal and professional lines.”

Lashana Lynch is Agent 355, “a Secret Service agent who performs the duties of her job with the utmost professionalism — even under the most unexpected circumstances.”

Juliana Canfield is Beth, “a Brooklyn-based knife maker who grew up on a farm and went to New York to experience the big city. She finds something endearing about the hapless Yorick and when they’re together, there’s the undeniable spark of two kids in love.”

Marin Ireland is Nora, “the president’s senior assistant and right hand. She effortlessly balances family life with a job navigating the corridors of power.”

Y: The Last Man Details

Believe it or not, there was once a time when comic book adaptations, film or TV, were scarce. So scarce that some of us felt the need to apologize/make excuses for the lousy ones, of which there were plenty. That’s not weird, right?

But there was also a time when high quality scripted cable dramas were equally scarce. Now there’s some piece of must-see TV on virtually every night of the week.

Don’t worry, there’s a point to this story. Back in those days of scarcity, fans would sit around and read comics of exceptional worth like Preacher or Y: The Last Man and say, “gee, this thing is paced just like one of those awesome cable dramas that we sure wish there were more of, and it’s more compelling than most of the other crapola on TV, too.” 

I’m paraphrasing, of course. Instead, we were constantly threatened with a Preacher movie or even a Y: The Last Man movie. “But movie studios,” we would cry, “these are serialized dramas that would be far more suited to television!” Those pleas fell on deaf ears.

Until now. Now we have things like a Preacher TV series on AMC, for example, not to mention an endless array of superhero dramas on broadcast and cable networks. But FX has been developing Y: The Last Man as a series for a few years now, because doing it as a movie would be foolish.