Y: The Last Man Star Barry Keoghan Exits FX Comic Book Adaptation

Rebecca Iannucci
·2 min read

FX’s adaptation of Y: The Last Man has hit another behind-the-scenes snag: Dunkirk actor Barry Keoghan, who was set to fill the series’ title role, has exited the project.

Keoghan first boarded the drama in July 2018 as Yorick, a young man who may be the lone male survivor of a worldwide plague. Collider, who first reported the news of Keoghan’s exit, did not cite a reason for his departure, but sources say the role will be recast. A rep for FX did not immediately respond to TVLine’s request for comment.

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This is not the first setback for the long-gestating project. FX’s adaptation — simply titled Y — was in development for nearly three years before it scored a pilot order in April 2018, and it was later ordered to series in February 2019.

Two months later, however, co-showrunners Michael Green and Aïda Mashaka Croal parted ways with the show, citing creative differences. “FX has decided not to move forward with our series in its current form,” they said at the time, prompting Eliza Clark (Extant, Animal Kingdom) to take the showrunner reins.

FX Networks chairman John Landgraf offered a status update in January at the Television Critics Association winter press tour, confirming that the series was still in pre-production.

“We’ve seen five, six scripts now. That’s about all I can say. We haven’t scheduled it because it hasn’t gone into production yet,” Landgraf said. “We changed showrunners and did a big reboot on it, so that was a big redevelopment, but that seems to be doing well.”

An adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s comic book series, Y takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where a cataclysmic event has decimated every male except for one lone human, Yorick. In his travels, Yorick encounters a new world order of women who explore gender, race, class and survival.

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