Masked Vigilantes, Murder And Mars: The Incredible Trailer For The ‘Watchmen’ Reboot Has It All
Alan Moore's seminal comic book has been transformed into a dark, modern new HBO miniseries.
For many years, Alan Moore’s seminal graphic novel Watchmen seemed genuinely unfilmable.
The comic book that changed most people’s minds about what comic books could be, Watchmen is pure philosophical pulp; a treatise on free will, fascism, agency, power, nuclear weapons, war, the national psyche, America, and consequentialism. It’s exactly the property that Hollywood has historically failed to adapt for the screen, and indeed the most prominent attempt to do so — Zack Snyder’s big-budget adaptation — was an abject failure. Little wonder that Moore himself has been so grouchy about the idea of his work being transformed for the screen.
But now, HBO and Damon Lindelof of Lost and The Leftovers fame have had a go at the property, “remixing” rather than restaging the comic book for a new audience.
Of course, if you’re a purist, you’ll shudder at the idea that anyone would try and top Moore’s already perfect property. But the new trailer for the Watchmen miniseries is exciting evidence that Lindelof might have been able to pull off the impossible, adapting Watchmen by existentially changing it.
As the new trailer makes clear, Lindelof has jettisoned most of the comic book’s cast. (Spoilers for the Watchmen graphic novel follow, so just skip down to the trailer if you haven’t read it.) Rorschach is apparently still dead, his work taken up by a cult-like group of vigilantes who have waged war on the police. Adrian Veidt is apparently a goner too according to a headline in a newspaper, but most comic book fans will realise that’s almost definitely him played by Jeremy Irons. Maybe he’s faked his death, going into hiding to stage another grand scheme? Oh, and that’s Nite Owl’s ship shooting flames at one point — is it possible that he’s retired into police-work, and is now played by Don Johnson?
One thing’s for certain; the big blue man, Dr. Manhattan himself, is back on Earth, fingering a plastic mask of himself at the trailer’s conclusion in a shot that will give most Moore-heads chills.
Bring this thing on, I say.
Watchmen debuts sometime in October.