A politician (Diane Lane) seeks allies while hiding her son in FX on Hulu’s “Y: The Last Man.”
Imagine a world from which almost every man is eliminated.
A new FX on Hulu drama series based on a DC comic visualizes it. Premiering Monday, Sept. 13, “Y: The Last Man” makes virtually every mammal with a Y chromosome extinct … one extremely rare exception being the son (Ben Schnetzer) of a politician (Diane Lane) with White House aspirations. She tries to hide his continued existence while building a team of female allies, though others conspire against her, notably a political rival (played by Amber Tamblyn).
Olivia Thirlby, Ashley Romans, Diana Bang, Missi Pyle, Juliana Canfield, Marin Ireland and Elliot Fletcher also are featured in the sci-fi saga from executive producer and writer Eliza Clark (“Rubicon”). “I read this comic book 10 years ago and fell in love with it,” Clark recalls. “I think it is a beautiful story about survival, and it examines characters in a landscape that is constantly pressing on really interesting ideas about power and systems of oppression.”
Still, Clark was compelled to update the story. “Our show is gender-diverse,” she says, “We’ve made the representation of this world, in some ways, very different from the way it is in the comic book. Yorick’s (the son) maleness is not what sets him apart in this world; it’s his Y chromosome that sets him apart. We used the comic book as a blueprint, and I think fans of the book are going to love (this).”
Though actress Lane has continued to get strong movie roles, she explains of her “Y: The Last Man” involvement, “I wanted this opportunity to work with an ensemble that was going to bring an iconic piece of writing to life. I was always so surprised at who was a fan of the graphic novel, so I found that intriguing. It made me want to lean in and take the risk on a new type of format.
“I’ve only ever done one other series (the final season of ‘House of Cards’),” adds Lane, “but this was much more of an ensemble, and my part in it was certainly very interesting to me. (And) who knew that we were going to be faced with the experience as it laid out for all of us in the period of time we were filming?”
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Indeed, fellow executive producer Nina Jacobson (“The Hunger Games”) reflects, “I don’t think anybody could have imagined some of what we have learned, even in this last year or so, about how hard it is to hold it together in a crisis. And I think that the show does reflect a lot of the 2020 ‘moment’ in a way that none of us could have anticipated.”
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“Y: The Last Man”
Premieres Monday, Sept. 13, on FX on Hulu
