The wait is finally over — HBO has placed a series order for Damon Lindelof’s “Watchmen,” the premium cable network announced Friday. Lindelof is reteaming with fellow “Lost” alum, director Stephen Williams, to bring his take on the comic books to the small screen.
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, per HBO. The show is set for a 2019 debut on HBO.
The “Watchmen”s previously-announced, all-star cast includes Regina King, Jeremy Irons, Don Johnson, Tim Blake Nelson, Louis Gossett Jr., Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Adelaide Clemens, Andrew Howard, Tom Mison, Frances Fisher, Jacob Ming-Trent, Sara Vickers, Dylan Schombing, Lily Rose Smith, and Adelynn Spoon.
Lindelof will write the series and executive produce, with Williams, pilot director Nicole Kassell, Tom Spezialy and Joseph Iberti also executive producing.
Not much is known about HBO’s take on the famed comic series, except that it will be separate from Zack Snyder’s 2009 “Watchmen” film. In May, Lindelof took to Instagram to share his early ideas for his take, explaining that the HBO series won’t be an adaptation or a sequel, but a “remix.”
“We have no desire to ‘adapt’ the twelve issues Mr. Moore and Mr. [Dave] Gibbons created thirty years ago,” wrote Lindelof, in a five-page letter he shared on Instagram. “Those issues are sacred ground and they will not be retread nor recreated nor reproduced nor rebooted. They will, however, be remixed.”
“Watchmen” is produced for HBO by White Rabbit in association with Warner Bros. Television, based on characters from DC.