FX's 'Y: The Last Man' TV Series Finds A New Showrunner

FX has been developing a TV adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra's acclaimed comic series Y: The Last Man for years, going as far as to commission a pilot that was picked up to series earlier this year. That seemed like great news, but the stumbles for this property continued: a few months ago, the series lost showrunners Aida Mashaka Croal and Michael Green due to "creative differences;" thankfully, FX decided to continue moving forward with it anyway.

The search was on to find a replacement, and now that search is over: Eliza Clark, who previously worked on Animal Kingdom and The Killing, has been hired to take over as the new showrunner.

Deadline reports that Clark is now overseeing the show, and that the pilot, which was directed by Melina Matsoukas (Insecure, the upcoming Queen + Slim) and already completed, "is expected to undergo some changes" under her new leadership. The show's logline reads: "Y traverses a post-apocalyptic world in which a cataclysmic event has decimated every male save for one lone human. The new world order of women will explore gender, race, class and survival." (Don't forget about the main character's pet monkey, named Ampersand.)

Diane Lane, Barry Keoghan, Imogen Poots, Lashana Lynch, Juliana Canfield, Marin Ireland, and Amber Tamblyn have already signed on to star.

"A decade ago I devoured the complete Y: The Last Man series cover to cover, imagining how it might take shape on screen," Clark said in a statement. "It introduced me to the amazing work of Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra and the complex, fascinating world of Y. I'm thrilled to tell this story and to be working with this immensely talented cast."

Nina Jacobson (The Hunger Games, Crazy Rich Asians), who serves as one of the show's executive producers, said, "We were chasing Eliza Clark as a writer long before we knew that she shared our obsession with Y: The Last Man. Eli's singular voice and insight into the world and themes of Y make her uniquely suited to bring this story to life."

In addition to writing and executive producing shows like Animal Kingdom and Extant, Clark previously adapted author Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy into a series for director Darren Aronofsky. HBO ultimately passed on the project back in 2016, but last we heard, Aronofsky was still interested in making it elsewhere; at the time, he had especially kind things to say about Clark's screenwriting contributions:

"We just went with the best writer. Her work is amazing. It was interesting to see how her brain worked and processed to bring it all into a cohesive universe. Figuring out how to focus it into a ten-episode series was really challenging. It is such a massive, amazing piece, and we are just trying to find the right home."

FX CEO John Landgraf previously revealed that Y would premiere sometime in 2020, so I expect that to hold even with the tweaks being made to the pilot episode.