“Oh farts.” Those were the last words spoken by The Last Man on Earth‘s Phil “Tandy” Miller after it was revealed that he and his makeshift family were surrounded by dozens of fellow, unidentified survivors.
So who were those people? Why did they emerge from an underground bunker? And what was with those gas masks?
Those questions would have been answered in Season 5, which creator and star Will Forte suspected would have been the series’ last. But instead, Fox cancelled the post-apocalyptic satire days after its Season 4 finale. Now, for the first time, Forte is opening up about what would have happened following that epic cliffhanger.
“[These people] went down [into the bunker] when the virus had first started,” Forte revealed on Vulture‘s Good Ones podcast. “They had some kind of medical expert or scientist who knew, ‘At this certain point, the virus will be dormant. You’ll be safe to get back out,’ and they had reached that point. Then they see a bunch of stragglers — us — and we represent a real threat to them, because they thought [everyone] was dead, so they quarantine us.
“We eventually communicate with them a little bit [and] they get comfortable with us,” he continued. “They look scary but they end up being nice people.”
As was tradition for the show, among the bunker people probably would have been one or two famous guest stars, à la Jon Hamm, “and eventually we’d all get comfortable with each other,” before they freed at least one of the survivors from quarantine. That, in turn, would have proven to be a fatal mistake. “We are immune to the virus, but we’re carriers. And so we would infect them and they’d die like wildfire,” Forte revealed, “and then we’re back to just our little group, and maybe one famous [guest star] we could talk into staying around.” All told, that arc would have lasted “four or five episodes.”
While many fans remain disappointed that Last Man wasn’t granted a final season, Forte admits that there was no vision for how the show would end end. “We don’t know how we were going to end the show,” he said, but “we would have found something that would have been fitting for the audience.”
Are you still bitter about Last Man‘s demise? Satisfied with knowing how the cliffhanger would have been wrapped up? Drop your thoughts in a comment below.
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