With no official trailer yet, fans of the comic book series Y: The Last Man have had to guess what the upcoming live action series will look like when it premieres on Hulu on September 13. Now the folks at FX Networks have provided us with a fleeting glance of the show’s setting and major characters.
The series follows Yorick Brown and his pet monkey, Ampersand, who appear to be the only two survivors of an unknown apocalypse that suddenly kills all male mammals on Earth.
FX Networks recently posted a “Who We Are” video on YouTube that included “blink and you’ll miss it” teasers for their productions coming this fall. The section devoted to Y: The Last Man was a whopping 3 seconds, but still provided enough detail to give those of us who are anxiously awaiting the show much fodder for discussion.
In the first shot, we see Yorick holding what appears to be a gas mask, with bodies of men lying in the street. It looks like he painted a message on the storefront that reads something along the lines of “Beth, I’m alive. Come (in?) – Y.”
The character of Beth played an important role in the comics, and it looks like she will in the show also.
One other item of interest is the pet crate. Does Yorick carry Ampersand around in that? Given that the monkey will be computer generated, keeping Ampersand locked up in the crate would be a way to keep production costs down versus having to animate him scampering around all the time.
In the next still, we see evidence of the speed of the “death to males” apocalypse. Crashed planes, pileups on the freeway, multiple fires burning in the city in the background.
This was not a conventional plague or virus that slowly spread across the globe. This was some sort of simultaneous flipping of the off switch that affected everything with a Y chromosome all at once. You can imagine what kind of chaos would ensue, and I’m looking forward to how they portray that in the show.
Next up we have a shot of Agent 355. In the comic, she is a bodyguard of sorts for Yorick, tasked with protecting him as they travel to meet a scientist who hopes to solve the riddle of what’s happened. In the clip, Agent 355 can be heard saying “Somewhere inside of him is the answer to how this all happened, and how we fix it.” so apparently the show will follow a similar story line.
And finally, we have a shot of Yorick’s mother, Congresswoman Jennifer Brown. This shot doesn’t tell us much other than the fact that her character is in the show. But as a member of the United States House of Representatives, her inclusion does hint that we’ll get to see a higher level view of how the crisis is affecting various areas of the country, and how the government is responding.
This is as opposed to a show like The Walking Dead where the characters on the ground have no idea what’s going on, and no way to get that information. Having a functioning government is always a great plot device that allows for almost magical gathering of information and unlimited resources needed to keep the story moving. Need a vehicle? Fuel? Food? Weapons? Yeah, no problem, we’ve got warehouses full of that stuff.
So there you have it. What do you think? Is your appetite whetted? We’re only two months away from the premiere, so hopefully we get a full trailer soon. But even with what little we know so far, it’s looking like Y: The Last Man will be a worthy addition to the post-apocalyptic television genre.
You can watch the clip for yourself here.
Update: FX Networks just released a 30-second teaser for the show. It doesn’t give us much new information, but it’s interesting nonetheless. Check it out below.
