Y: The Last Man showrunner Eliza Clark said she hopes the show reshapes the way that viewers understand the idea of gender.
"We wanted to take a lot of care in how we told the story," Clark told CBR about her decision to feature trans and non-binary people both behind and in front of the camera. "So that's super important to me." Clark added that the Y: The Last Man team also collaborated with GLAAD to make sure the trans and non-binary characters were accurately portrayed.
"I really think that the show -- in a general way -- is about identity and about the ways that identities are foisted upon us, or what parts of ourselves come from us and what parts of ourselves come from our family's expectations of us, what parts come from the systems of oppression that kind of make up the air that we breathe, in ways that we didn't even know about," she continued. "So, you know, patriarchy, white supremacy, capitalism, CIS/heteronormativity, all of that stuff is a part of who we are in ways that we don't even know about."
Clark added that "the show is really about escaping binary ways of thinking" and said she is proud to depict characters -- like Dr. Allison Mann (Diana Bang) -- who openly explore concepts like gender throughout the series, and who understand "that gender, is not equal to chromosomes, and that even chromosomes -- there's just a greater and wider diversity of people that exist in this world."
"[Dr. Mann] makes it very clear to Yorick (Ben Schnetzer) in their first meeting that her desire to fix this is not about some narrow-minded idea about bringing back men, because there are still men in this world, but about bringing back all of that diversity," she explained. "That's at the heart of who she is as a character, but it's also at the heart of what I am interested in talking about with the show."
During the same conversation, Clark also downplayed the idea that Y: The Last Man is supposed to be a commentary about feminism and Girl Power, explaining, "I mean, I felt like it was important that we understand that this event kills everything with a Y chromosome because I think some of the narrative that's out there about the show is like this sort of Girl Power thing, which it's not actually -- it's tragic, what happens. It upends everything. Children die. A dog dies. Lots of men die. Trans women die. It's horrible, what happens."
Based on the acclaimed DC/Vertigo comic of the same name written by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Pia Guerra, Y: The Last Man stars Ben Schnetzer as Yorick Brown, Ashley Romans as Agent 355, Diana Bang as Dr. Allison Mann, Olivia Thirlby as Hero Brown and Diane Lane as President Jennifer Brown. Y: The Last Man is now streaming on FX on Hulu.
Source: CBR