When Y: The Last Man finally makes the leap from the pages of Vertigo to FX, it will be under the guidance of comic creator Brian K. Vaughan and Michael Green, the latter of whom is becoming the king of adaptations, his name attached to American Gods, Logan, Murder On The Orient Express and the sequel to Blade Runner (yeah, okay, so it’s a sequel to an adaptation — sue us).
The comic debuted from Vertigo (also the home of Preacher, Lucifer and Constantine) in 2002, the same year it takes place. Rather abruptly, all mammals with a Y chromosome suddenly die, plunging the world into chaos and the future of humanity into question. The one exception is escape artist Yorick Brown, who is suddenly the luckiest man alive (and not just for survival reasons; our observation: there are suddenly a lot of available ladies out there). The other Y chromosome survivor is his Capuchin monkey, Ampersand, and together (along with U.S. Congress-enlisted Agent 355) they’re looking for answers while being chased by a variety of people and governments who either want him dead or to get their hands on him for experimental reasons.
This is not first attempted adaptation of Y: The Last Man. In 2007 David S. Goyer was going to produce a verson to be written by Carl Ellsworth and directed by D.J. Caruso. Five years later, the film still languishing in development, writers Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia came aboard, followed in 2013 by director Dan Trachtenberg. The following year, Vaughan told the media that the rights had reverted back to him and artist Pia Guerra.
As to the conception of Y, in an interview with The Daily Beast, Vaughan mused, “Each book I work on is just my cheap form of therapy, where I explore whatever I am conflicted or scared about. Y: The Last Man was written after a breakup and I was sort of confused and terrified about the opposite sex…. The conflict is always really internal and then I just spread it out to characters to try to figure out what the hell is wrong with me.”
If the title goes to series, odds are the audience will end up wondering the same thing.