Y: The Last Man canceled by FX after just one season – but is it the end?

(Image credit: FX)

After just one highly-anticipated debut season, Y: The Last Man won’t be returning for a second season – on Hulu and Disney Plus, at least.

The news comes after showrunner Eliza Clark took to Twitter to announce that the TV adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan’s acclaimed graphic novel series “will not be moving forward with FX on Hulu for season 2.”

Y: The Last Man – which follows the plight of Yorick Brown, the last cisgender male human on Earth – spent more than a decade in development with various studios, enduring several failed attempts to bring its comic book story to the screen before FX finally commissioned a TV show in 2018.

A challenging subject

In our review of the series’ first season, we described Y: The Last Man as “a show that just about deserves your attention” – which is rather indicative of the decidedly lukewarm reception to the live-action adaptation, and one evidently shared by FX itself.

That reception likely didn’t come as a surprise to Y: The Last Man’s creator, either. During a recent appearance on THR’s dedicated TV podcast, Vaughan acknowledged that his comic is concerned with “challenging subject matter” that makes (and made) big-screen adaptation problematic.

Speaking of previous attempts to theatrically adapt his story, Vaughan said Y: The Last Man was often diluted and sanitized so much that it “lost everything” and was bordering on “becoming cartoonish,” adding that “[the story] can only be [told] on television.”

Showrunner Clark also told THR’s podcast that she envisioned the show as a five-season, 50-episode series – signing off her announcement tweet by saying “we don’t want it to end.”

As for whether Y: The Last Man will find a new studio home and receive a second series, then, the jury is out. As acknowledged by both Vaughan and Clark, this is a difficult story that demands – and perhaps deserves – telling across more than just a single season.

The show’s first season was by no means bad, either. Y: The Last Man boasted a cinematic quality to match some of the biggest shows out there right now, one that meant its complex themes were explored in a very visceral and comprehensive way – its episodes just needed to move a little quicker.

But perhaps that ponderous pace, one that reflected an equally slow development cycle, proved the final nail in the coffin for a show that looks to have crash landed on takeoff.

Everything we know about The Mandalorian season 3

Axel is TechRadar's UK-based Phones Editor, reporting on everything from the latest Apple developments to newest AI breakthroughs as part of the site's Mobile Computing vertical. Having previously written for publications including Esquire and FourFourTwo, Axel is well-versed in the applications of technology beyond the desktop, and his coverage extends from general reporting and analysis to in-depth interviews and opinion. Axel studied for a degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick before joining TechRadar in 2020, where he then earned an NCTJ qualification as part of the company’s inaugural digital training scheme.