FX ‘Y: The Last Man’ TV Series Delayed Over 2016 Election, Writer Explains

Live-action adaptations of Y: The Last Man have been so long coming, we barely noticed FX’s TV take fell behind. That said, the reason for the delay is surprisingly in line with the comic, as writer Michael Green reveals the outcome of the 2016 election made him rethink the pilot.

FX has been developing the Brian K. Vaughan-adapted series since at least 2015, with Green said to be working on the script as recently as January. In conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, however, Green revealed that the inherent misogyny of the 2016 political race made him question how best to tell a story comprised almost entirely of women:

It would have been a very different show, and very different development process, had the election not been as horrifying as it was. I had to put the script down for a couple months and really reassess it tonally, because it became a different creature, it became violent protest. It couldn’t not be political, and I had to embrace it, and I had to find my way in, and I had to find a way to channel my own dismay, disappointment and rage into it, while still keeping it what it is. For a minute there I almost walked away.

For those unaware of the 60-issue series written by Vaughan and drawn by Pia Guerra in 2002, Y: The Last Man follows the aftermath of an apocalyptic event in which almost every male on Earth simultaneously dies out, save for twenty-something amateur escape artist Yorick, and his pet monkey Ampersand. The pair team with secret agent “355" and a young doctor to travel the country in search of Yorick’s girlfriend Beth, and an answer to the worldwide plague.

FX previously partnered with Vaughan, Color Force’s Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson (The Hunger Games, American Crime Story) to develop the sci-fi comic as an ongoing series. New Line had earlier acquired the rights in in 2007, setting David Goyer, Carl Ellsworth and director D.J. Caruso to adapt Y: The Last Man as a single film, before rights reverted to Vaughan in 2014.

At the very least, Green confirmed that both FX and Vaughan were supportive of his current pilot draft, though the network wanted “to take their time” to get the show right. Understandably, Y: The Last Man would fall into the same increasingly-relevant space as Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, but will the revamped version feel any different?