FX Dishes Details on ‘Y: The Last Man’ Series, Including Setting, Characters & That Monkey [TCA 2018 Exclusive]

There has been a lot of news about FX’s adaptation of Y: The Last Man, simply titled Y for the network. The cast so far includes Diane Lane, Imogen Poots, Barry Keoghan and most recently Timothy Hutton. But now FX has provided some new details about the forthcoming series adaptation.

During FX’s Television Critics Association session, FX CEO John Landgraf explained why he preferred the title to simply be Y (including plans to play with it graphically), Aftewards, he spoke to /Film about the show’s updated post-apocalyptic setting, the monkey Ampersand and the presence of another man in the cast who isn’t Yorick, the last man.

For those who don’t know, Brian K. Vaughn’s comic Y: The Last Man is about a plague that wipes out all men (with the Y chromosome) except for Yorick Brown (Keoghan) and a monkey named Ampersand. In the comic, all of this happens in 2002, the year that the comic was published, but that will change for the series.

“It’s present day,” Landgraf confirmed. “I mean, it’s a minute in the future.”

What About the Monkey?

A live-action monkey wouldn’t be totally out of the question for a TV series. Friends did it, and the short-lived Animal Practice starred Crystal, the monkey from The Hangover. Perhaps for an hour-long drama that requires a lot of interaction, visual effects will be the best, and Landgraf confirmed Ampersand would be “mostly CGI.”

Diane Lane is The Last Man’s Mother

Oddly most of the reports about Lane’s casting neglect to mention her name. They confirm she’s the mother of Yorick, who in the comics is Representative Jennifer Brown. Landgraf confirmed that’s her, although referred to her as a senator which may just be a verbal mix-up on his part

“She’s playing a senator who’s the mother of the hero,” Landgraf said. “The whole show centers around the family in which the father dies. The mother is a senator but then gets involved in trying to reconstitute the American government. Then her daughter and son, he’s the last man on Earth, are left standing.”

Who is the Other Man?

The big question is why they cast Timothy Hutton? If Yorick is the last man, how much could Hutton have to do? I’m guessing Hutton plays Yorick’s father who dies in the first episode. Even so, that wouldn’t rule out Hutton appearing again in flashbacks. Then again, the original casting said Hutton was playing the President of the United States, so maybe he only appears in some kind of video addressing the pubic about this plague that has befallen the men of the world’s population.

Landgraf wouldn’t confirm Hutton’s episode count for us, or his role. “I can’t say,” Landgraf said.

Anyway, Y is a go, so stay tuned to see how this long-gestating and anticipated adaptation plays out.