Judging by the first teaser, HBO’s modern-day Watchmen television series is just as obsessed with the end of the world as its alternate-1980s-set source material. Damon Lindelof’s adaptation (or, as HBO calls it, “reimagining”) of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ graphic novel seems to center on the character of Rorschach—or at least, on his legacy via that iconic mask and the increasingly creepy repetition of “tick-tock, tick-tock” bringing to mind the Doomsday Clock.
Watch the teaser:
From what we can tell, in this future Rorschach seems to have become a figurehead for some masked, Anonymous-esque movement based in violence, going after the police. Regina King’s character seems to be a cop but also a masked vigilante, which is very interesting. And, of course, there’s Adrian Veidt (Jeremy Irons), meditating like we’re not counting down to the apocalypse (again?). But this is all speculation until we find out more about the series.
HBO’s official description won’t tell us much, either:
Created by Damon Lindelof, Watchmen is a modern-day reimagining of Alan Moore’s groundbreaking graphic novel about masked vigilantes. Starring Academy Award-winner Regina King, Don Johnson, Jeremy Irons, Jean Smart, Tim Blake Nelson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Louis Gossett Jr.
Watchmen is expected to premiere sometime in 2019.
