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Watchmen Ordered to Series at HBO; Premieres in 2019
HBO officially picks up Watchmen for a full series order and it'll premiere next year. With the popularity of comic book based properties at an all-time high, every media outlet is trying to get involved. Disney's got the MCU, Warner Bros. is developing multiple DC related projects, and Sony is looking to get a Spider-Verse going. On the small screen, Netflix, Hulu, and more have become involved, but one of television's most popular channels, HBO, has yet to get involved. That is, until they ordered a pilot for a Watchmen TV series from Damon Lindelof.
The series has already filmed the pilot, leaving the future up to whether or not HBO would move forward with an entire series order. Alan Moore's graphic novel is highly regarded as one of the best ever made, but Lindelof is going in a different direction. While Zack Snyder largely adapted the novel for his 2009 big budget movie, the HBO series will dive into new territory - and HBO is officially moving forward with it.
HBO has given a full series order to Lindelof's Watchmen. The announcement comes shortly after the programming chief of HBO heavily teased this announcement was coming, but now its official. The series is going to move ahead quickly as the network already confirmed a 2019 premiere for the DC adaptation. In addition to the series being picked up, they also revealed the first art for the series, using one Dr. Manhattan's famous quotes to tease the continuation of this story.
Interest in the HBO series has been extremely high due to Lindelof's involvement due to his work on Lost and more recently with The Leftovers. It was always a bit unlikely that HBO wouldn't move forward with the show, but the full series pick up now should be a vote of confidence in the pilot. The first episode is directed by Nicole Kassell, who has worked with Lindelof before on The Leftovers, but she's also directed episodes of Castle Rock, Westworld, and The Americans to name a few.
The official logline for the series reads: "Set in an alternate history where 'superheroes' are treated as outlaws, WATCHMEN embraces the nostalgia of the original groundbreaking graphic novel while attempting to break new ground of its own." While the actual story that the series will tell remains a mystery, it is being led by a great ensemble cast. Regina King, Jeremy Irons, Don Johnson, Tim Blake Nelson, and Aquaman's Yahya Abdul-Mateen II are some of the show's many stars. More details are sure to come now that the series has been picked up by HBO, but that information could still be months away.
Watchmen will premiere on HBO in 2019.
