Fans of Y: The Last Man encountered heartbreaking news on Sunday: after only two months of the first episode was aired, FX On Hulu decided to cancel the series. As for now, the first and potentially only season is still running with two episodes left. The abrupt cancellation stirs up discussions of why the series couldn’t last. An article from The Hollywood Reporter unveils some details and possible reasons why Y: The Last Man was suddenly canceled. Sources also point out that the series may find a new home shortly.
Reportedly, a main reason for the cancellation is that the contract options of the series’ actors have to be extended multiple times. For instance, Diane Lane (The Walking Dead) and Barry Keoghan (The Killing of a Sacred Deer) had signed their contracts with Y: TLM back in 2018. But the interminable production process and endless delays have required their contracts to be extended multiple times. These delays were caused by changes of showrunner and casts, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. As more actors’ contracts now need to be extended, the costs to do so have driven FX On Hulu to make the tough decision.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the decision to cancel was not made due to viewership or critical reviews, as Y currently holds a 73 percent rating among critics and 67 percent score with viewers on Rotten Tomatoes. FX simply refused to pay $3 million to further extend options with the risk of leaving the cast in limbo again, despite the $8.5 million-per-episode budget of the series.
“Without COVID, the show would have been on a different clock,” one source noted. It takes 14 years to bring the novel of Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra to the screen. FX began its production back in October 2015. While Michael Green (Murder on the Orient Express) and Aida Mashaka Croal (Blowin’ Up the Spot) initially served as showrunners and executives of the show, they exited in the middle of 2019 due to creative differences. Eliza Clark (Extant) then took the position. But when the pandemic hit and forced the development to pause, the show was once again delayed. In September 2021, the series finally made its debut.
However, the show may find a new home for its future episodes. The report indicates that HBO Max is interested in giving Y: TLM a second chance, as the Y: The Last Man comic series was initially published under DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint. FX currently owns the show, but it’s possible that FX will consider selling. Nevertheless, the fact that FX is now under Disney makes this path a bit more unclear.
The remaining two episodes of this season will air on Oct. 25 and Nov. 1. “The characters you see by Episode nine and 10 are not going to be anything like the characters you saw in the season premiere,” said Ashley Romans (Hermione Granger and the Quarter Life Crisis), the series star, “That’s when the ball’s going to start rolling, really, in terms of who these people are, and who they’re choosing to be in this new world. It’s going to be mind-blowing.”