'Y: The Last Man' Series Will Include Transgender Characters Not Featured in the Original Comics
Published Sept. 13 2021, 7:06 p.m. ET
The new FX series Y: The Last Man, based on a series of comic books written by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra, premieres on Hulu on Sept. 13. After a worldwide event that simultaneously killed everyone with a Y chromosome, only one man with a Y chromosome, Yorick Brown (played by Ben Schnetzer), remains.
The cast of characters includes Diane Lane, Ashley Romans, Olivia Thirlby, and Elliot Fletcher — though not all of their characters can be connected directly to the original comics.
Elliot Fletcher joins the series as a new character not found in the original comics.
Elliot Fletcher, known for his roles in Shameless and The Fosters, will be joining the new FX series as Sam Jordan. Sam's character is a transgender man, like Elliot himself, though he doesn't have an origin in the comics. Instead, his character will be used by the creators to introduce new stories.
“In this world post the event, gender is somewhat irrelevant,” Elliot told Variety. “I think one of the hilarious things about this show is that post the event, Yorick can walk around without a mask on because he’s assumed to be trans, rather than pre-the event people are assumed to be cisgender. And so, I just think it flips the traditional idea of gender completely on its head, and so I was very comfortable joining a project that knew that ahead of time and committed to it fully.”
The show will address transgender characters a bit differently than the comics.
The original comics were released in 2002, before the discussion around sex and gender evolved to where it is now, meaning the series will "update" what the original story focused on, especially when it comes to its transgender characters.
In the original comics, it's stated that transgender men are not eradicated from the world, since they don't have a Y chromosome, though transgender women are. It still left many questions about the gender binary in between — and the FX series will delve into that.
“Yorick’s maleness is not what sets him apart in this world — it’s his Y chromosome that sets him apart,” showrunner Eliza Clark told Variety. “Gender is diverse and chromosomes are not equal to gender. And so, in our world — in the world of the television show — every living mammal with a Y chromosome dies. Tragically, that includes many women; it includes non-binary people; it includes intersex people. … We are making a show that affirms that trans women are women, trans men are men, non-binary people are non-binary, and that is part of the richness of the world we get to play with.”
For those who refuse to understand the gender binary, FX chairman John Landgraf broke it down even further to the outlet: “There are women with two X chromosomes, men with an X and a Y chromosome … women with two Y chromosomes and there are men with two X chromosomes. So…there are numerous men in the show who have two X chromosomes; they’re important characters.”
While Elliot's character may not have a clear origin in the comics, he and other characters will aid the discussion around gender and identity the show aims to create.