HBO has released a teaser trailer for the much-anticipated Watchmen series. With the trailer’s release comes confirmation that the new show will indeed hit the airwaves this Fall.
The new show won’t be a direct adaptation, nor will it be a sequel or prequel. In a long letter on Instagram, executive producer Damon Lindelof had this to say:
“We have no desire to ‘adapt’ the twelve issues Mr. Moore and Mr. Gibbons created thirty years ago. Those issues are sacred ground and will not be retread nor recreated nor reproduced nor rebooted. They will, however, be remixed. Because the bass lines in those familiar tracks are just too good and we’d be fools not to sample them.”
Lindelof goes on to say:
“Those original twelve issues are our Old Testament. When the New Testament came along it did not erase what came before it. Creation. The Garden of Eden. Abraham and Isaac. The Flood. It all happened. And so, it will be with Watchmen. The Comedian died. Dan and Laurie fell in love. Ozymandias saved the world and Dr. Manhattan left it just after blowing Rorschach to pieces in the bitter cold of Antarctica.”
After reading all of that, it’s hard to pinpoint what exactly the famed producer means. The show will take place in the same world and the events that unfolded will be canon. They’re essentially using the same chess board but changing the game.
The Watchmen series has always had the stigma of being impossible to bring to the screen. Zack Snyder did the best he could with the 2009 movie adaptation of the source material. Ultimately, fan reception was mixed and the box-office numbers were less than meteoric.
Perhaps the winning formula isn’t a direct adaptation after all. The comic book told the story as it needed to be told, all-the-while, creating a rich world to play in. Lindelof and team appear to be taking the ball and running with it. HBO has a knack for creating TV gold, so let’s hope we have another GoT on our hands to satiate our appetites
The Watchmen series stars Regina King, Jeremy Irons, Don Johnson, Jean Smart, Tim Blake Nelson, Louis Gossett Jr., Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Andrew Howard, Tom Mison, Frances Fisher, Jacob Ming-Trent, Sara Vickers, Dylan Schombing, James Wolk and Hong Chau.
Are you excited for the new series, or did the 2009 movie turn you off completely? Let us know in the comments below.
