A second season of HBO's 'Watchmen' isn't a sure thing and will depend on how audiences respond to season 1
- A second season of HBO's "Watchmen," which debuts October 20, depends on the audience's reaction, according to series creator Damon Lindelof.
- Lindelof said during a New York Comic Con panel on Friday that "every mystery and every question" will be resolved by the first season's end.
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HBO's first comic-book TV series, "Watchmen," debuts October 20 and it's already receiving praise after its pilot premiered at New York Comic Con on Friday. But that doesn't mean creator Damon Lindelof has gotten ahead of himself.
Lindelof, who also cocreated "Lost" and HBO's "The Leftovers," discussed the possibility of a second season of "Watchmen" during a panel at New York Comic Con on Friday. He compared the series to its source material of the same name, the 1986 comic series-turned-graphic novel, about a group of masked vigilantes that are roped into a conspiracy after one of their own is murdered.
"One of the things that makes the original [comic] perfect is that those issues were well-thought-out, and it was clear that there was a beginning, middle, and end in mind," Lindelof said. "They knew exactly what they were doing, and I knew that we had to do the same. We plotted out these nine episodes so that we knew exactly where we were headed so that every mystery and every question that we were asking would be resolved."
He then joked that he sometimes has "a different sense of what resolution is compared to other people." Both "Lost" and "The Leftovers" are well-known among audiences for their lingering questions and plot points. But "Watchmen" will wrap things up more concretely, according to Lindelof.
"We certainly didn't want this season to end with a 'bum bum bum' and then wait until season two," he added.
But that doesn't mean a second season isn't out of the question. Lindelof said it will depend on the reaction of viewers.
"We really want to see how this is received by you guys [the audience and fans]," Lindelof said. "If the conversation out there seems to suggest you're hungry for more, then we'll certainly take that into consideration. But our job was to just make these nine episodes that delivered an amazing story."
Other highlights from the "Watchmen" NYCC panel include:
- Actress Regina King, who also starred in "The Leftovers," said that she agreed to "Watchmen" before reading the script because Lindelof directly sent her the script with a personal letter. The script also included an artist's rendition of her as what would become her "Watchmen" character, Sister Night.
- Actor Jeremy Irons' character hasn't officially been revealed, but he was introduced as "probably who you think he is." Fans have speculated that he is playing Adrian Veidt, a main character from the graphic novel who is at the center of its mystery. Irons alluded that this is accurate at the panel. He said he read the novel after a dinner with Lindelof and got a sense of who he'd be playing and "what he'd done."
- Actress Jean Smart said her character, Laurie Blake, debuts in episode three of the series. Fans of the novel will know her character as the Silk Spectre II aka Laurie Jupiter.
- Dave Gibbons, the cocreator and artist of the "Watchmen" graphic novel, made a surprise appearance at the panel. He said that he liked Lindelof's vision because it wasn't a sequel or prequel, but an "amplification."