Warner Bros.
- Damon Lindelof revealed the first details about the plot of HBO's "Watchmen" TV series in a letter to fans on Tuesday.
- Lindelof said that the series will be an original "contemporary" story with "unknown" characters.
- He implied it will be set in a post-Trump world.
- "Watchmen" is one of the most acclaimed graphic novels of all time. It was originally adapted as a film directed by Zack Snyder.
Damon Lindelof revealed the first details about his upcoming "Watchmen" HBO TV series on Tuesday, and said it will be an original story with "unknown" characters.
"Watchmen" is a 1986 limited comic book series that has since been collected into a graphic novel. It follows a group of masked antiheroes in the aftermath of one of them being murdered, and how their presence changes the course of history - including the outcome of the Vietnam War. It is one of the most acclaimed graphic novels of all time and is considered by many, including its writer Alan Moore, to be unfilmable.
Lindelof, who co-created "Lost" and HBO's "The Leftovers," is aware of the pressure, and acknowledged fan expectations in a five-page letter he posted to Instagram on Tuesday. But he also revealed key details about the plot of his HBO series, or as he called it: "the only part that really matters."
Lindelof said he had "no desire to 'adapt'" the novel and that the 12 issues that comprise it will not be "retread nor recreated nor reproduced nor rebooted." Instead, it will be an original story that "must ask new questions and explore the world through a fresh lens. Most importantly, it must be contemporary."
Lindelof went on to imply that the series will be set in a post-Trump world in the same way that the novel was "specific to the Eighties of Reagan and Thatcher and Gorbachev." He also said that the events of the novel are still canon in the world of the TV series.
"When the New Testament came along, it did not erase what came before," Lindelof wrote, comparing the novel to the Old Testament.
New characters will also be introduced, according to Lindelof, which makes sense if the series does take place over 30 years after the novel.
"Some of the characters will be unknown," he wrote. "New faces. New masks to cover them."
"Watchmen" was previously adapted as a film directed by Zack Snyder in 2009, which was more of a direct adaptation of the novel with very few story deviations. It received subpar reviews, and has a 64% on Rotten Tomatoes.
No release date or casting information has been revealed for the HBO series, but if Lindelof's letter is any indication, it will very different from the film (and the novel).
Read Lindelof's entire letter below: