Fans may be disappointed to hear that on Friday, during an appearance at New York Comic Con, Damon Lindelof, the creator of ‘Lost’ and ‘The Leftovers’, revealed that the first season of the upcoming HBO superhero drama series ‘Watchmen’ was intended to be a closed-ended story. Alongside the series’ ensemble cast, Lindelof divulged to the crowded audience their perspective of the series for the first and, possibly, last time.
“We want to see how it’s received by you guys,” he said. “If the show comes out there and the conversation surrounding the show suggests you’re hungry for more, we’ll certainly take that into consideration. We want to deliver nine episodes that deliver a complete and total, amazing story.”
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The revelation that ‘Watchmen’ would be a miniseries much like the comic book maxiseries it is adapted from was, according to Lindelof, a source of apprehension.
“One of the things that makes the original perfect is those 12 issues are designed with a beginning, middle and end in mind,” he says. “They knew exactly what they were doing. We knew we had to do the same. We plotted these nine episodes with every mystery and question being resolved. I sometimes have a different sense of resolution than others, but we wanted it to feel immensely satisfying. We didn’t want it to end with [a cliffhanger] for season two.”
‘Watchmen’ co-creator and artist, Dave Gibbons, who first met Lindelof in 2018 at Comic-Con arrived later on the panel and revealed that he was on the same page as Lindelof.
“What particularly attracted me was Damon wasn’t thinking of this as a prequel or a sequel, but an extrapolation. What Alan and I did with ‘Watchmen’ was ask, if superheroes really existed, what would they be like? It’s a big and bold question. What Damon is answering here is, if that had happened back in 1986, what would the world be like now? That 30 years is a lot of time for a lot of unexpected things to happen. You end up a million miles away from the graphic novel, but with extreme fidelity to it. There’s nothing in here that contradicts the graphic novel.”
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Lindelof’s vision stems from his original experience with the graphic novel and the nostalgia it instilled in him. “Those 12 issues are absolutely canon to us,” asserted Lindelof. ” If our version of ‘Watchmen’ becomes a gateway for people to buy the graphic novel and read it? It’s one of the greatest things ever written and illustrated. I would be happy for that.”
The television series was envisioned by Lindelof and his team as an exploration of what ‘Watchmen’ would be in the present day rather than an ongoing sequel. While Lindelof would be content with the story ending with a nine-episode season complete with a beginning, middle, and conclusion, fans probably have their hearts set on something more. I guess we’ll just have to see how the season plays out.
‘Watchmen’ premieres on October 20th on HBO at 9 PM.
