New teaser tries to trick us into believing the Y: The Last Man show actually exists

Ben Schnetzer and Diane Lane are set to star in the "series," although they're conveniently absent from FX's teaser

New teaser tries to trick us into believing the Y: The Last Man show actually exists
Y: The Last Man Screenshot: YouTube

Few pop culture projects have devoted more time, energy, and resources—across more than a decade of production time—into trying to convince us that they exist than the Y: The Last Man adaptation. Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerrera’s award-winning graphic novel, about a world in which all the men save one drop dead, has deployed every trick in the book to try to get us onboard with the idea that someone might actually make a film or TV series out of it: Production announcements, high-profile castings, and even a series commitment from FX On Hulu to make a show out of the comic. It’s an amazing effort just to try to trick us into thinking this thing has been made, a feat of prestidigitation as elaborate and impressive as any of the escape tricks that protagonist Yorick Brown prides himself on performing in the book.

Now FX has launched its latest stunt in support of this “new television show,” scheduled to “debut” on “September” “13": An actual, bona fide teaser trailer for the series, which is set to star Ben Schnetzer as Yorick, and Diane Lane, Ashley Romans, Diana Bang, and Olivia Thirlby as some of the many, many women he suddenly finds himself surrounded by in the wake of the semi-apocalypse.

Not that you’d know that from the trailer, though, which maintains the illusion that the series has actually been filmed by refusing to show us even a second of footage, instead opting for a graphic presentation laying out the basic premise. (Which, again: All the men are now extremely dead.) Meanwhile, James Brown croons about it being “A Man’s Man’s Man’s World,” which, not so much, anymore. (There’s also some fun chromosome art, in case the whole “Y” thing hadn’t already leapt out at the science nerds in the audience.)

Anyway: Kudos to all the pranksters and impractical jokers involved in this one. What’s next: Some actual shots of Schnetzer walking among the corpses of the planet’s men? An actual broadcast of full episodes of the “show”? A second season renewal? We swear, the lengths these folks will go to to get a laugh.

 
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