I need to discuss this new Watchmen TV show with somebody, but because holy crap does it look AMAZING.
Some things that I picked up on in the SDCC trailer:
-Jean Smart’s character’s name is Laurie Blake. Why can’t HBO just confirm this is Silk Spectre?
-Don Johnson’s character pilots the Owl Ship with relative ease. Safe to assume he’s playing Nite Owl?
-Why would Damon Lindelof claim this show isn’t a sequel to the comic, even though we have every member of the original team back for this show outside of Rorschach and the Comedian (for obvious reasons)? Since it directly deals with the revelation of Ozymandias’ plan from Rorschach’s journal, it should be considered a sequel, correct?
It’s probably not a sequel to the comic because the events in the past happened differently than in the comic. Basically, I expect it to be a sequel that takes creative liberties with what actually happened in the original. Which is kind of confusing and annoying.
@Awesome Squid. Yeah I have a real problem with changing the events of the comic. I forgave Zack Snyder due to the fact that it was a movie, but this is a TV show for Christ’s sake. You have the time to flesh out all parts of the comic.
The ending is the biggest problem with the comic, because once no other squids appeared the peace would fall. (Sam Hamm specifically said that in an interview when the movie was trying to get off the ground in the 80’s.) Hell, Doomsday Clock is essentially lampshading it. The movie at least gave us something lasting.
Maybe it really is a sequel and Lindelof just didn’t want to upset people that would see “Watchmen 2” as tampering with the original story (although those same people are still pretty peeved with the idea). Or maybe it’s not a sequel because the “official” sequel is Doomsday Clock, and this show isn’t an adaptation of that?
I think we’re getting into semantics here. It is by every definition a sequel to the comics as Lindelof has stated that everything that happened originally still happened in this timeline. Everyone who died in the original story died in this one. Dan and Laurie fell in love. Ozymadias killed Eddie Blake and destroyed huge swaths of out population. Dr. Manhatten left Earth. “But is it a sequel to the comic or the movie,” well, seeing as people speak favorably of Dr. M, it’s the comic. The movie saw the population unite against Dr. M as Ozymandias essentially framed him for mass murder. The book sees them unite against secret man-made “space squids” created by Ozymandias and “silenced” tradesmen who had previously “gone missing”. Everything else plays out exactly the same.
So unless this show states that there was no squid incident, it’s a sequel to the comic as it is the next chapter sequentially. They’ve also stated “Doomsday Clock” and “before Watchmen” arent being acknowledged.