HBO Watchmen series gets full season in 2019
Soon everyone will be able to "watch the Watchmen." On HBO, that is. The iconic graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons is getting a live-action TV series adaptation on HBO, with the network originally ordering a pilot last year and now confirming that a full season has been ordered. The show will premiere sometime in 2019, and features Damon Lindelof, co-creator of Lost and The Leftovers, as show-runner.
Other than the release date, the announcement was minimal on details, including the number of episodes and exactly what the show will be about, other than that it's "set in an alternate history where 'superheroes' are treated as outlaws." HBO did reveal the cast however, but not which characters they'll be playing: Regina King and Jeremy Irons will headline, along with Don Johnson, Tim Blake Nelson, Louis Gossett Jr., Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Adelaide Clemens, Andrew Howard, and more.
Longtime fans and followers of Watchmen will know that writer Alan Moore was strongly against any adaptations of the graphic novel, including Zack Snyder's 2009 film. HBO notes that the new series will "embrace the nostalgia" of the comic as well as "break new ground of its own," however, and Lindelof has said that his show will not try to strictly adapt Watchmen or serve as a sequel. Earlier this year he released a very lengthy statement explaining his plans for the new series, including that it will "remix" the original work.
"We have no desire to "adapt" the 12 issues Mr. Moore and Mr. Gibbons created 30 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. 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."
It seems clear that both HBO and Lindelof are one the same page about the Watchmen series being something new and different from both the comic and the movie. For fans open to the idea of a new take on the story, there's good reason to look forward to 2019.
SOURCE: HBO