When Damon Lindelof announced that he was taking on the iconic Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons comic Watchmen for HBO, he was very clear that this wouldn’t be a direct adaptation, or even a precise sequel. What he said was: “We have no desire to ‘adapt’ the 12 issues Mr. Moore and Mr. Gibbons created 30 years ago. Those issues are sacred ground and will not be retread nor recreated nor reproduced nor rebooted. They will however be remixed.”

The strongest connection between the original comic—which is an alt-history examination of authoritarian governmental power, masked vigilantes, and the creeping menace of the Cold War—and Lindelof’s TV version thus far had been the fact that Jeremy Irons would be playing an aged-up version of Adrian Veidt (aka Ozymandias), and that the iconic look of the character of Rorschach would live on in a creepy new cultish militia. But a new trailer released out of Comic-Con on Saturday revealed many more connections to the classic 1980s text. Here are several details we picked up on.

The Squids: The original Watchmen comic ends with Ozymandias faking a squid-ish alien invasion, killing countless humans in order to inspire the warring factions of earth to unite in a common cause. It…works! Some other masked vigilantes help him cover up the sham for the greater good—all except Rorschach, whose unyielding sense of justice demands that the people know the truth. One of the heroes then kills him, once again for the greater good. The threat of an external enemy ends the Cold War and the nuclear escalation between the United States and the Soviet Union, as everyone bands together in the face of a new enemy.


In Zack Snyder’s 2009 film adaptation, Ozymandias (played by Matthew Goode) instead pins the event on Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup). Manhattan goes along with it (for the greater good), and accepts his role as the villain earth needs. No squids. So the use of squids throughout this trailer—especially in that trial shot above—rather firmly establishes that the Moore comic, not the Snyder film, is the main inspiration Lindelof is working with here. What’s very interesting is that in Lindelof’s version of the story, the squid attacks seem to be ongoing, as we see a warning in the right-hand headline of this paper (squint!): “Boise Squid Shower Destroys Homeless Camp, Kills 2.”

The squids are still showering? Is this shot a squid shower in progress?

Could Ozymandias’s plan of ongoing fake news and fear be some kind of commentary on today’s political and media landscape? No way.


Laurie Blake: The biggest character reveal of the trailer seems to be that Jean Smart, previously only identified as Agent Blake, is in fact someone called Laurie Blake. This means she’s likely an older version of Laurie Juspeczyk, aka the Silk Spectre. (The character was played by Malin Akerman in the 2009 film.) Her age lines up with a story that takes place 30 years after the original. Blake is the last name of the Comedian (played in 2009 by Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who is Laurie’s biological father. (This whole relationship is complicated by the fact that, at one point, Eddie Blake raped Laurie’s mother, Sally Jupiter, and Sally developed feelings for him anyway. This, unfortunately, is classic Moore.)

Lindelof’s Laurie may have changed her name to obscure her true self, or she may have aligned herself with her biological father’s more cynical world view. Smart’s character seems to be skeptical of this new world order, where cops wear masks to hide their identities—and though we only have the trailer to go on, it’s possible this Laurie, like the character in the comics, might have the most sympathetic world view.

Nite Owl: Another main character from the comics is Daniel Dreiberg, aka Nite Owl II. (Played by Patrick Wilson in 2009.) We see a shot of his iconic Owlship “Archie” in the trailer, and it looks like Don Johnson’s character, Chief Judd Crawford, is behind the wheel. Does this mean Johnson is playing an older version of Dan? Maybe. Once again, the ages line up. But Judd doesn’t look very competent flying that ship. In fact, he crashes it. Is he just a little rusty and out of practice? Or has he borrowed it from someone, and has no idea how to handle it?

Dan and Laurie have a romantic past, which could provide some rich material for Smart and Johnson to play. As Lindelof put it in his letter, here are the immovable facts of the Watchmen world: “The Comedian died. Dan and Laurie fell in love. Ozymandias saved the world and Dr. Manhattan left it just after blowing Rorschach to pieces in the bitter cold of Antarctica.”


We should note that another figure in the trailer is reminiscent of Nite Owl. This masked figure Laurie pulls her gun on is wearing a costume that is not all that dissimilar to the original Owl look.

Dr. Manhattan: Finally, rounding out the group of familiar original comic characters is Dr. Manhattan. His usage in the trailer tells us several things. First of all, he’s being celebrated in a number of images, which further erases Snyder’s version of the story. In any version of the story, though, Dr. Manhattan is self-exiled from earth. As he promises at the end of the comic, he is looking to create some life out there in the galaxy. Squint down at the bottom of this chyron on the news, and you’ll see water has been discovered on Mars. (Hence the very on-the-nose use of the David Bowie song in the trailer.)

More intriguingly, Manhattan seems to show up back on Earth at the end of the trailer, after we hear Ozymandias say “nothing ever ends.” (These are Manhattan’s parting words to Ozymandias in the comics.)


No actor is listed as playing Dr. Manhattan in the show. So: is he really back? Is he really Louis Gossett Jr.? (Probably not, but that would be fun.)

Will there be a big reveal? Is something else going on? More on that later.

The Rorschachs: At the end of Moore’s comic, Rorschach has written the truth of Ozymandias’s fake news scam in his journal, which he leaves behind to be discovered after his death. The bitter twist is that though the journal is discovered, no one can read Rorschach’s handwriting: “one notebook, pages filled with what is either an elaborate cipher or handwriting too cramped and eccentric to be legible.” In the 2017 Doomsday Clock comic, however, the journal is deciphered. Rorschach gets a devoted following, and Ozymandias, who was once considered a hero, is now revealed to be a villain. There’s some mixed info on whether or not Lindelof will be using Doomsday Clock as a source, but perhaps that’s why Ozymandias is “dead” in the new TV series. You have to wonder if maybe he faked his own death in order to escape paying for his squid crimes. (What a joyful sentence to type.)


Anyway: According to the trailer, in the near-past, the cult of Rorschach followers carried out a coordinated attack on police officers and their families. It looks like Regina King’s cop character, Angela Abar, was personally impacted by the attacks.

As a result, the police, including Angela, have decided to mask their identities for their own protection, becoming the masked crime fighters they once outlawed. Uniformed officers wear yellow masks, while plainclothes police like Angela, Red Scare (Andrew Howard), Pirate Jenny (Adelaide Clemens), Panda (Jacob Ming-Trent), and Looking Glass (Tim Blake Nelson) all adopt more eccentric, comic book-esque personas.


Even the judges wear masks. Creepy.

This doesn’t seem like a great solution; as Bowie sings “take a look at the lawman beating up the wrong guy,” footage of brutal police violence plays. Looks like they change into costumes in storage units, too, which is a serious downgrade in the secret lair department.

This premise seems to be a slight nod to the comic book storyline of the The Keene Act, in which the United States Congress outlawed “costumed adventuring,” except for a few figures who worked on behalf of the U.S. government. Actor James Wolk is playing someone named “Senator Keane,” and we see a glimpse of him in a photo during what looks like some kind of FBI briefing.

According to Chief Crawford’s briefing in the trailer, the Rorschachs are back after some time in hiding. (There is a slight possibility he’s talking about the squids here, but I think it’s the Rorschachs.) This appears to be Lindelof’s attempt to provide some meta-commentary on the “bad” fans of the Watchmen comics who have, since Moore published the comic, embraced Rorschach’s rigid, fascistic world view as something to be celebrated. (It isn’t.) The alt-right-ish militia wearing Rorschach masks in the trailer should tell you everything you need to know about Lindelof’s opinion of those fans.


The Presidents: Another indication that Lindelof will be using Doomsday Clock as an inspiration is the inclusion of President Robert Redford in a classroom poster. In Doomsday Clock, a 1992-version of President Redford, running behind in the polls, orders a highly secretive investigation into the events of the New York City Massacre (you remember, with the squids) known as Operation: Commodus. Rorschach’s journal is verified, and the investigators implicate Veidt. This secures Redford's reelection on the campaign promise of capturing Ozymandias. You’ll also notice President Nixon on that classroom poster. In the alternative history of the comics, Nixon repeals the 22nd Amendment restricting presidential term limits, has reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein assassinated, and still serves as president in 1985.

We also see a glimpse of a trailer park called Nixonville. This is either a reference to the Pottersville slum of the alternative history section of It’s A Wonderful Life, or the real-world shanty towns of the Great Depression named for President Herbert Hoover and called Hoovervilles. It’s the same negative association either way.


Tartarus Acres: This isn’t a reference to the comics; it’s a reference to the Greek mythological hell dimension of Tartarus, where the worst of the worst go to be tortured for all eternity. Lindelof has chosen it as a name for a fictional cemetery, which just proves he’s back on his Lost/The Leftovers literary reference kick. That’s music to this TV fan’s ears.

We see a funeral for someone who had great authority, someone the police would fire off shots for. There are a number of good options here. Perhaps it’s Johnson’s Chief Crawford. Perhaps it’s Ozymandias faking his death. Why do I think Ozymandias faked his own death? Oh, just because it’s exactly the kind of thing he’d do. In one shot, we see him blowing out what looks like a birthday cake with one candle.

Is he celebrating the first year of his new life after death? His intonation of “it’s only the beginning” over the trailer would indicate he’s still scheming those schemes. Maybe the ongoing squid attacks are an attempt to clear his name. If he’s “dead” and the squids are still flopping, he can’t be the one to blame, right?


Also, and this might be a complete shot in the dark, but: in Snyder’s film, when referencing secretive amassing of power, Ozymandias tells a collection of the most famous businessmen in the world that he’s “worth more” than all of their corporations combined. Is that why we see a jewelry store called “Worthmore” in the Watchmen trailer? Or have I been squinting at this thing too long?

American Hero Story: Minutemen: One thing that throws into question everything we think we’re seeing in this trailer is the inclusion of an in-universe TV show called American Hero Story: Minutemen, which appears to be about the comic’s real 1940s-era Minutemen vigilantes, who pre-date the Watchmen. (Also, please let that title be a riff on American Horror Story/American Crime Story.)


The most prominent figure in this American Hero Story show appears to be a fictionalized version of Hooded Justice, a real figure in The Watchmen universe. But a glimpse of a tagline on a taxi reads, “Comedy begets tragedy.” That language, plus a familiar masked face on the left of the ad, indicates that we might see a fictionalized TV version of The Comedian as well.

This is all a little confusing, but it looks like Lindelof has found a meta way to both tell the Minuteman story from the original Watchmen comic inside his own TV show, and to comment on the phenomenon of superheroes and masked vigilantes. (As evidenced by Looking Glass’s stunned reaction to the line about masked people not knowing themselves.)

This device has a parallel in Moore’s book, where the pirate comic Tales of the Black Freighter is woven into the Watchmen story and serves as a sneaky little examination of superhero culture. (There’s also a pirate flag in the trailer, so...who knows!)

American Hero Story: Minutemen appears to be very popular in this Watchmen universe. The ads are in the background of a number of shots. The original Minutemen were Captain Metropolis, Silk Spectre (Sally Jupiter), Hooded Justice, Nite Owl (Hollis Mason), Silhouette, Dollar Bill, Mothman, and the Comedian. But given that there’s a fake superhero show happening inside Lindelof’s story, we need to be aware that anything we might see in these trailers could be part of that. Up to and including Manhattan.

The Logo: They even found a way to incorporate the blood from the most iconic Watchmen imagery.