With the dragons, swords and sex of Game of Thrones finally set to wrap up in the first half of 2019, there’s a gap in HBO’s schedule that must be filled. Fortunately, the network already has a strong candidate for what they hope could be their next flagship series – Watchmen.
At a Television Critics Association event, HBO President Casey Bloys was discussing Damon Lindelof’s plans for his adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ iconic graphic novel, which is generally considered to be the Citizen Kane of superhero stories. According to Variety editor Debra Birnbaum, Bloys said he had “high hopes” for the project, with everyone very positive about the script and casting for the upcoming series.
They’ll get to see whether this has all come together relatively soon, too, as the pilot for the show will be screened to them sometime this week. Even better, we’re promised a full season “hopefully as soon as possible.”
While it looks like Watchmen is moving forward pretty quickly, we still don’t know that much about what the project will consist of. We’ve heard it’s trying to separate itself from Zack Snyder’s 2009 film adaptation, though, which tried its best to translate every event from the comic to the screen. HBO’s take, on the other hand, will be more of an update of the story for the modern era, whatever that means. At the very least, it’s got a great cast, boasting Jeremy Irons, Regina King, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Don Johnson and Tim Blake Nelson.
Don’t expect to hear any comments on the show from Alan Moore though. The writer is famously on the outs with Hollywood adaptations after a terrible time spent making The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which culminated in him being sued for plagiarism (he won, easily). Still, I have a feeling that he’ll prefer Lindelof’s attempts to do something new with Watchmen over Snyder’s dogged faith in merely recreating the comic in live-action.
