Y: The Last Man has had a long, long, long journey to a screen near you and now, finally, it’s actually happening. FX announced that the newly reimagined Y: The Last Man TV series has begun production in Toronto, and a few new cast members are along for the ride.
Actress Ashley Romans (NOS4A2) replaces Lashana Lynch (Captain Marvel) as Agent 355, a secret agent that accompanies Yorick, the titular Last Man, on his journey. Also, Olivia Thirlby (Dredd) replaces Imogen Poots (Green Room) as Hero Brown, Yorick’s sister, who just happens be on the hunt to find him.
The title role is still being played by Ben Schnetzer, who was announced in February to be replacing original star Barry Keoghan. At that time, the show was just about to go into production — but then covid-19 happened, which likely forced this latest round of recasting. FX made the rest of the casting official too along with the news, and it’s as follows:
- Diane Lane as Congresswoman Jennifer Brown
- Diana Bang as Dr. Allison Mann
- Juliana Canfield as Beth Deville
- Elliot Fletcher as Sam Jordan
- Amber Tamblyn as Kimberly Cunningham
- Marin Ireland as Nora Brady
Of course, Y: The Last Man is based on the comic by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra which ran for 60 issues from 2002 to 2008, telling the story of Yorick’s life being turned upside down when he wakes up one day to find that a viral disease has seemingly wiped out every single male mammal on the planet, save for himself (and a monkey named Ampersand — who will now be CGI in the series).
In the time since the beloved Vertigo series’ conclusion, numerous filmmakers such as D.J. Caruso and Dan Trachtenberg tried to bring it to the big screen to no avail. Then, in 2015, Hunger Games producer Nina Jacobson teamed with FX to develop it as a TV show. Three years later, a pilot was filmed and the show was ordered to series — however, the showrunners then departed, a new showrunner (Eliza Clark) came on board, and that’s before we get to Keoghan’s aforementioned departure and the recent filming delay.
With the new showrunner and a new lead, things went back to the drawing board, resulting in the show that just started filming again this week. Hopefully, this time’s the charm?
Y: The Last Man will debut on Hulu in the U.S. sometime next year. Stay tuned for where it’ll end up in Australia.