After years of being in flux, a Y: The Last Man project is finally in production. The upcoming FX on Hulu drama series based on DC Comics’ acclaimed series of the same name by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra.
Here’s the description : Y: The Last Man traverses a post-apocalyptic world in which a cataclysmic event decimates every mammal with a Y chromosome but for one cisgender man and his pet monkey. The series follows the survivors in this new world as they struggle with their efforts to restore what was lost and the opportunity to build something better.
The pilot was retooled and the project has seen a number of creatives at the helm in different iterations of it. Moving from FX, it will now air exclusively on FX on Hulu in 2021 and starring Diane Lane as Congresswoman Jennifer Brown, Ashley Romans as Agent 355, Ben Schnetzer as Yorick Brown, Olivia Thirlby as Hero Brown, Amber Tamblyn as Kimberly Cunningham, Marin Ireland as Nora Brady, Diana Bang as Dr. Allison Mann, Elliot Fletcher as Sam Jordan and Juliana Canfield as Beth Deville. A number of these roles have been recast since the pilot, including Lashana Lynch, who was originally Agent 355. No word on why she departed the project, but it was likely due to scheduling conflicts for the No Time to Die star.
The first two episodes were written by Eliza Clark and directed by Louise Friedberg. FX says all episodes will be directed by women and the production has “a significant number of female department heads, including both DPs, the production designer, costume designer, casting director, editors, stunt coordinator and more.”
Eliza Clark, Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson of Color Force, Mari Jo Winkler-Ioffreda, Brian K. Vaughan and Melina Matsoukas serve as executive producers. Nellie Reed is also a producer.
In the Y: The Last Man, comic book series, Yorick Brown, a young amateur escape artist, and his monkey, Ampersand, suddenly become the last two male beings on earth after something mysterious wipes out every mammal on the planet possessing a Y chromosome – including embryos, fertilized eggs and even sperm. Society is plunged into chaos as infrastructures collapse, and the surviving women everywhere try to cope with the loss of the men. Yorick goes on a mission to find his girlfriend, Beth, who is supposed to be on vacation in Australia and is accompanied by a bodyguard named Agent 355. She is an employee of a secretive U.S. government agency, described in brief as a bad-ass who kicks butt and confidently handles a variety of weapons. Though the central character is a white man, Agent 355, a significant role, is a black woman. Keoghan will be Yorick, and Lynch will be Agent 355.
Y: The Last Man is a 60-issue sci-fi comic book series published beginning in 2002. It received three Eisner Awards and won the first Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story for Y: The Last Man, Volume 10.
For some more context, this is a project that has been in the works since at least 2008, and it was at once a priority for New Line Cinema. Later, Vaughan said the project was dead. In 2016, FX announced that a project was in development from Michael Green. He later departed the project, as did Aïda Mashaka Croal. Way back in 2008, Alicia Keys was the then producer’s choice to play Agent 355, but he also mentioned Zoe Saldana, adding that, by the time the film was to be released, “Star Trek will be out, and she’ll be huge,” obviously hoping to capitalize on any added popularity Saldana was expected to gain after Star Trek‘s release. And while Star Trek was released, and was relatively huge for Saldana, no Y: The Last Man film adaptation ever materialized. Rosario Dawson was another name that was mentioned at that time.
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