'Y: The Last Man' officially extinct after one season at Hulu on FX, as search for new home fails

Yorrick and his simian sidekick are being left to forever wander the post-apocalyptic wasteland all on their lonesome. After shopping Y: The Last Man to potential streaming suitors following the show’s cancelation last fall, showrunner Eliza Clark has confided to fans that there’s been no headway, meaning Y will go the way of the dodo after only 10 episodes.

Clark took to Twitter to deliver to fans the sci-fi series’ final dose of sad news, confessing that the failure to find a Season 2 streaming home had “hit me pretty hard.” It sounds like the ideas for the show’s second season were plenty ambitious: “We had a lot more stories to tell,” wrote Clark, including “a kick-ass pitch for s2, that included new twists on some of the best stories from the book (astronauts anyone?)”

Though viewers saw the writing on the wall after FX declined to renew the series last October, it’s still a bitter pill for fans who’d eagerly tracked the show’s long and arduous journey from the comics to the screen in the first place.

Pivoting away from original plans for a feature-length film, FX first announced a live action series based on the immensely successful Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra-created comic two years ago. From there, the network stuck with an ensuing slate of changes among the cast and creative team before the series’ long-awaited first season finally arrived last September. FX revealed its decision not to continue the show before all 10 Season 1 episodes had aired, with pandemic-related production delays and overruns seemingly serving up the final nail in Y’s development coffin.

Like the comics on which it’s based, the show follows the adventures of protagonist Yorick (played by Ben Schnetzer) and Ampersand, his pet monkey, in a post-apocalyptic world that carries high stakes for getting spotted out in the wild. Not only is Yorick the only male on Earth left alive after a mysterious disease smites everyone else with a Y chromosome; he’s also the son of the acting U.S. president (played by Diane Lane).

Clark’s dejection over Y’s ultimate demise came across in a series of candid tweets that reflected a die-hard fan’s investment in the series’ fascinating dystopian setting.

“[W]e tried really hard to get another platform to pick up season 2 of Y. But sadly, it doesn't look like it's going to happen,” a crestfallen-sounding Clark shared with fans. “While it doesn't end the way we would have ended the series, I still think there are complete stories told, and performances that are pretty f***ing brave and exciting,” she added.

With no streaming takers, Clark’s previously-shared hopes to tell Y: The Last Man’s full story over 5 or 6 seasons seem forever stranded in post-apocalyptic limbo. At least we’ll always know how it started: The series’ first (and only) season continues to live on as a tidy 10-episode binge at FX on Hulu.