More than a year after Damon Lindelof announced his interest in developing Alan Moores legendary graphic novel Watchmen for TV, HBO has given the show the green light for an entire first season, planned for sometime in 2019. With the final conclusion of the networks most popular show Game of Thrones on the horizon, HBO has already set its sights on a number of projects to pick up the pace after its flagship is gone, having given the Watchmen series a pilot order in 2017.
But, its not going to be exactly the same Watchmen as the comic books fans might expect. Lindelof previously described his plans for the series as a “remix” of the characters and story from the novel, and the shows official logline reflects that concept: “Set in an alternate history where superheroes are treated as outlaws, Watchmen embraces the nostalgia of the original groundbreaking graphic novel while attempting to break new ground of its own.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, many of the familiar characters from the source material will show up in the show, but everything else will be a little different.
In an open letter to fans of the book and of Moore and co-creator Dave Gibbons, Lindelof likened the source material to the Bibles 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. To be clear. Watchmen is canon.” Though, he explains a few lines later, fans shouldnt expect a direct sequel either: “Some of the characters will be unknown. New faces. New masks to cover them.”
HBOs other genre projects in the offing include J.J. Abrams sci-fi drama Demimonde, Jordan Peele and Misha Greens racism-horror exploration Lovecraft Country, and Joss Whedons Victorian sci-fi The Nevers.
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