Just weeks after fans said goodbye to HBO’s The Leftovers, reports are now circulating that creator Damon Lindelof may be returning to the premium channel with another series: an adaptation of the comic book series Watchmen.
Who are the Watchmen?
The Watchmen comics, which first premiered in 1985, are set in a universe with an alternate history in which superheroes emerged in the 1940s and 1960s. As a result of their presence, the United States won the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal was never exposed. Now retired, a group of crimefighters reunites to investigate the murder of one of their own, while the country is on the brink of World War III with the Soviet Union. The comics feature characters like Doctor Manhattan, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre, and Rorschach.
HBO has declined to comment on the upcoming project, but Deadline reports that Lindelof is in “very early talks” to develop the adaptation.
Other Watchmen Adaptations
This would not be the first time HBO attempted to bring the DC comics to television. The channel had tried in 2014, with Zack Synder attached, but ultimately scrapped the project. Lindelof’s take on the series would reportedly be completely independent of that previous attempt.
Questions remain what sort of relationship this series would have with the movie, produced by Warner Bros. and released in 2009. The film, which starred Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Matthew Goode, Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Carla Gugino, and Malin Akerman, was directed by Snyder, but he will reportedly no longer have any involvement in the Lindelof series.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lindelof had been a fan of the Watchmen comic series growing up in the 80s and says that it continues to influence his work. In 2009, he told Comic Book Resources that the “flashbacks,” “nonlinear storytelling,” and “deeply flawed heroes” are all elements he tries to incorporate into his writing.
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