Deadline recently reported that Damon Lindelof, creator of such shows as Lost and The Leftovers, is working on forming a deal with HBO to adapt the comic book series Watchmen into a television show. The process is reportedly in the very early stages, and no deal has officially closed.
Watchmen was a DC Comics limited series that was published during 1986-1987 and was written by Alan Moore, with artwork provided by Dave Gibbons. It was previously adapted into a 2009 film directing by Zack Snyder and starred Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Malin Akerman. HBO had previously considered adapting the comic series for television back in 2014 and began negotiations with Snyder, but the deal fell apart and was put aside. Lindelof’s project is said to be working independently from these past efforts and will not involve Snyder.
Watchmen answers the question of what our history would be like if superheroes were a normal part of our society. The DC story meshes together the superhero genre, historical fiction, and film noir to explore how superheroes could have affected world events, with the eras of the 1950s-1980s serving as the story’s backdrop. Its primary storyline follows a group of superheroes through the years and focuses on their efforts in the 1980s to hunt down a serial killer who is targeting retired superheroes.
Lindelof is fresh off his hit HBO series The Leftovers, a series that is widely celebrated by critics and whose last season just finished earlier this month. While Watchmen is considered by fans to be notoriously difficult to adapt due to all of its intricate working parts within the storyline, The Leftovers is an encouraging look into how HBO and Lindelof work together and offers a promising future for a television adaptation of the comic series.