Last December saw the jaw-dropping finale of Damon Lindelof’s adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ graphic novel Watchmen and after months of the showrunner and creator has been pretty firm on not being interested in returning for a second season, he has opened up on his thoughts about the show’s future.
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In an interview with Collider, Lindelof said he’s not necessarily “tapped out” from making another season of the series, but rather is more interested in seeing someone else take the reins and pen a second chapter.
“The legacy of Watchmen is Alan [Moore] and Dave [Gibbons] created it and it sat for 30 years, obviously Zack [Snyder] made his movie which was a pretty canonical adaptation of the 12 issues, and then we made our season of television,” Lindelof said. “That was my turn. I got in the middle of the dance floor for a minute and got to do my move, but then you retreat to the edge of the circle and it’s someone else’s turn to dance. Suffice it to say that I just feel like what’s best for Watchmen, this thing that I love, is for someone else to take their shot at it. I think that that’s just gonna be much more interesting than anything that I would do moving forwards.”
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“And it’s not that I take the opportunity for granted. I’ve learned that not working with actors again is stupid, so I would love to work with Carrie Coon again and I would love to work with Regina King again and Jean Smart and Tim Blake Nelson and Justin Theroux and Kevin Carroll and Jovan Adepo, who I’ve worked with twice now. These actors in the world of Watchmen. But at the same time, unless I have an idea that is as important to me as Tulsa ’21 was, then I shouldn’t do it. And I haven’t had that idea, and I want to create the space versus people waiting for me to change my mind. I want to create the space for people to come forward and say, ‘I have an idea.’”
Though he doesn’t believe he’s the creative mind to head a second season of the series, Lindelof does believe one will eventually be made with a new showrunner at some point in the future and is open to seeing whether it picks up where the finale left off, in which Regina King’s Angela possibly eats an egg containing Dr. Manhattan’s powers, or “they do an entirely different kind of Watchmen story.”
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“I am seeing a lot of people who respond to the show are catalyzed and interested in what the world would look like if it were being reshaped by Angela Abar,” Lindelof said. “I don’t have a good answer to that question, but that’s why it cut to black when it did (laughs). What is clear is that she is willing to become a god, because why else would she eat an egg or step in the pool in the way that she does?
“So she is accepting the challenge. A challenge issued not from Jon Osterman or Cal Abar or Doctor Manhattan or whatever you wanna call him, but actually a challenge that is issued to her by her grandfather. The last thing he says to her, talking about Doctor Manhattan, is ‘He was a good man but he could have done more.’ So now we get the sense that Angela is at least signing up for doing more.”
“So whether or not it works out, that’s basically the call to action to all of us right now… That’s what gives me optimism. That was the idea in Tomorrowland too. The future is not something that happens to you, it’s something that you make happen. So by showing Angela is willing to try to do more, that’s the clarion call for optimism. So if we’re basically saying, ‘I don’t think that this moment is going to lead to a better future,’ what I’m hearing is, ‘So you aren’t willing to do anything about it.’“
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Both fans and critics alike received Watchmen positively when the show debuted back in late 2019. The TV series by Damon Lindelof was an in-continuity sequel to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons landmark ’80s comic miniseries. Set in the present, it had a strong focus on race relations and the origins of masked vigilantism in America. Much to many fans’ disappointment, HBO has not signaled any plans for a sophomore season. Still, attention to this show remains high, thanks also to the fact that the series has recently won a Peabody Award.
Watch the full Collider interview, in which Lindelof also discusses Lost and Prometheus, below.
Recommended Reading: Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
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