It looks like we’ve definitely seen the last of Y: The Last Man, as the show's executive producer has confirmed that efforts to find a new home for the series have failed.
The FX on Hulu show premiered in September 2021, but before it could even finish its first run of 10 episodes it was confirmed that it wouldn't be returning for season two. However, at the time, the creative team was optimistic that a new home could be found for the show, urging fans to be vocal if they wanted to see more episodes.
Unfortunately, the “#YLivesOn” campaign never gained much traction, likely because the show had a pretty small viewership to call upon in the first place, and producer/showrunner Eliza Clark has now confirmed Y The Last Man won’t be returning to our screens.
For those of you who have been asking me: we tried really hard to get another platform to pick up season 2 of Y. But sadly, it doesn't look like it's going to happen. It is always incredibly difficult to move a show, and in recent years, it has only gotten harder. (thread)January 14, 2022
Clark took to Twitter to update fans of the show, posting: “We tried really hard to get another platform to pick up Season 2 of Y. But sadly, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. It is always incredibly difficult to move a show, and in recent years, it has only gotten harder.”
She also thanked viewers for being supportive of the show during its initial run and throughout its quest to find a new home. She ended her post encouraging people to rewatch the first season, and tell “friends to watch it.” However, considering the lukewarm response the show generated from both critics and viewers, we’re not sure that’s advice we’d echo.
Y: The Last Man was an adaptation of a series of post-apocalyptic comic books written by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra. The series took place after a mysterious cataclysmic event simultaneously killed every mammal with a Y chromosome except for one man, Yorick Brown (Ben Schnetzer), and his pet monkey Ampers. The cast included Diane Lane, Amber Tamblyn, Ashley Romans, Olivia Thirlby and Marin Ireland.
It’s quite ironic that the show’s lifespan was so short, considering getting it to the small screen took such a long time. The show was in development hell for over a decade, with the project taking on various forms over the years (a movie starring Shia LeBeouf was a possibility at one point). In 2015, FX began working on it as a TV project and eventually moved it over to be an FX on Hulu exclusive.
It should be noted that Y: The Last Man failing to find a new home was hardly unexpected. While it's not unheard of for canceled network shows to be revived on streaming platforms — see Netflix saving NBC’s Manifest as a recent example — a show canceled on streaming being saved by another streamer/network is almost unheard of. Once FX pulled the plug, it always looked like the show’s fate was sealed.
The list of canceled TV shows or series ending in 2022 is already growing just a few weeks into the year. I Know What You Did Last Summer has been canceled over at Amazon Prime Video while Netflix confirmed that the super-sized fourth season of Ozark will be its swansong. On the plus side, we do know that there are plenty of great renewed TV shows or series returning in 2022 — including the likes of Emily In Paris and The Boys.
