Y: The Last Man's Elliot Fletcher recently detailed what it was like to help develop Sam Jordan, a character that was created specifically for the television adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra's popular comic series.
"...It was, I mean it's been a great process," Fletcher said during the Y: The Last Man panel at New York Comic Con, which was attended by CBR. "I love collaborating with [showrunner Eliza Clark]."
The actor added that shaping the character started with a series of both in-person and Zoom meetings, in which they "talked about Sam and his relationship to Hero, and his relationship to his family and all that stuff."
"And it was...I feel almost like it's kind of a privilege that Sam wasn't in the comics, because I do now have so much freedom to create and to collaborate and form relationships with other characters in a very specific way," Fletcher continued. "But it's been great. Yeah, he is in a space though that I don't think he ever thought he would end up in."
In addition to working with Fletcher who, like Sam, identifies as a trans man, showrunner Clark previously revealed that she worked with representatives as GLAAD to make sure that trans and non-binary people were accurately and realistically portrayed on the show. At the time, Clark said that "the show is really about escaping binary ways of thinking" and revealed it was her intention to explore the idea "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."
During the same panel, Vaughan praised Clark's adaptation of his original novels, including new characters like Sam. "...It's not just how incredible the characters are, they just feel like platonic, the best possible, ideal versions of Yorick, of 355, of Dr. Mann, but it's the new characters that have come in," he revealed. "I just, I can't imagine the show without them. I want to go back and redo the comic and just put them all in. It's just, it's breathtaking, so I just wanted to say thank you to you all."
While Y: The Last Man was canceled by FX on Hulu after just one season, there is speculation that the show could be picked up by HBO Max for Season 2. This seems to be its best bet, as Warner Bros. owns both HBO and DC, the latter of which originally published Y: The Last Man under its Vertigo imprint.
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: New York Comic Con 2021