Who watches the Watchmen? San Diego watches the Watchmen! On Saturday, HBO dropped a surprise Comic-Con trailer for Damon Lindelof’s upcoming adaptation of Watchmen, and it contains all sorts of clues and winks at the series’ plot.
Lindelof’s version is a sequel to the original that takes place in our present. In the world of HBO’s Watchmen, Dr. Manhattan is in self-exile “on fucking Mars,” cops are all wearing yellow masks, Ozymandias has been declared officially dead (although we also see him blowing out a birthday candle, so probs not), and a troop of masked vigilantes (who’ve been outlawed) are now roaming the streets wearing Rorschach’s old face. After said vigilantes carry out coordinated attacks on the families of cops around Tulsa (and possibly elsewhere), one cop named Angela Abar (Regina King) decides to take matters into her own hands and don a costume herself.
The rest of the trailer contains quick snippets that seem to hint at some sort of widespread conspiracy involving giant squids, normal-sized squids (splattering onto someone’s windshield), explosives, and Ozymandias back to his old tricks. It ends with a blue-handed individual bending down to pick up a Dr. Manhattan mask, so it looks as though our favorite naked cosmic misanthrope will be making his return to earth.
Watchmen will begin airing on HBO in October.
