Watchmen finds new life on
HBO with a series from Damon Lindelof. Rather than make another screen adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s comic, Lindelof has instead come up with something else – a story set decades after the events of the original comic.
We’ve seen bits and pieces of the new Watchmen show for the last few months, as well as a tantalizing teaser. Now, a new
trailer gives us yet another look at what’s in store. Watch the Watchmen trailer below.
Watchmen isn’t an easy comic to bring to life. Even when Zack Snyder attempted to do a panel-for-panel adaption, he still couldn’t quite stick the landing. Rather than even attempt to use the primary text of Moore’s work, Damon Lindelof has created…whatever this is.
“We have no desire to ‘adapt’ . the twelve issues Mr. Moore and Mr. Gibbons created thirty years ago,” Lindelof said when the show was first annoucned. “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. 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.”
So what’s in store for the new series? Maybe this synopsis can help:
Watchmen takes place in an alternative, contemporary reality in the United States, in which masked vigilantes became outlawed due to their violent methods. Despite this, some gather around in order to start a revolution while others are going out to stop it before it is too late, as a greatly wide question levitates above them all; who watches the Watchmen?Alright, that’s still pretty vague. Still, I’m intrigued by all of this, and excited to see how it plays out. Watchmen stars Regina King, Jeremy Irons, Don Johnson, Jean Smart, Tim Blake Nelson, Louis Gossett Jr., Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Hong Chau, Andrew Howard, Tom Mison, Frances Fisher, Jacob Ming-Trent, Sara Vickers, Dylan Schombing, and James Wolk.
Watchmen premieres on HBO this fall.