The first ‘Watchmen’ trailer arrived at San Diego Comic Con with several nods to the original comic from writer Alan Moore…
There have been a lot of questions surrounding the new ‘Watchmen’ series from ‘Lost’ and ‘The Leftovers’ co-creator Damon Lindelof after he stated emphatically that he wasn’t remaking the original story from writer Alan Moore but rather his show would instead be a ‘remix’ version.
Lindelof later clarified that the events that took place in ‘Watchmen’ would still serve as canon to his story, although he refused to flat out call it a sequel. Well based upon the first trailer for ‘Watchmen’, Lindelof is definitely making a sequel with plenty of nods to the original story.
The trailer appears to set ‘Watchmen’ approximately 30 years into the future after the events in the comic book that started out as a murder investigation into the death of a former superhero named The Comedian, which later revealed a massive conspiracy orchestrated by the world’s smartest man Adrian Veidt aka Ozymandias. In the comics, Ozymandias unleashes a fake alien invasion on the Earth in order to stop a potential nuclear war from breaking out after the relationship between the United States and Russia nearly deteriorates into disaster. The alien invasion serves as a call to arms so all of the nations around the world can come together to face a common enemy rather than destroy each other.
Rorschach — a former superhero turned vigilante — investigates the Comedian’s death and eventually stumbles upon the plot from Ozymandias to murder millions of people with his faked alien invasion. Ultimately, Rorschach is destroyed by Dr. Manhattan when the heroes realize that Ozymandias already carried out his planned attack before they could stop him and keeping this secret would be the only way to ensure a nuclear war didn’t actually break out between the U.S. and Russia.
The upcoming ‘Watchmen’ series from HBO definitely ties back to that original story based upon the first trailer that was released last week at San Diego Comic Con.
While no specific plot details were revealed, it’s clear that Rorschach plays a major part as a militia has started up in his honor with the members all wearing masks similar to the one he wore when he was a vigilante. Dr. Manhattan — the most powerful entity on Earth, who later exiles himself by moving to Mars — is also seen during the trailer.
We also see shots of Adrian Veidt (played by Jeremy Irons) at a birthday party with newspaper headlines reading that his death has been confirmed. While anything is possible, it would seem more likely that Veidt has faked his own death for some reason and that will likely be revealed during the course of the show.
There’s also the revelation of a character named ‘Laurie Blake’, which would seem to be tied to Silk Spectre II from the original ‘Watchmen’ comics. In the book, Laurie is the daughter of the original Silk Spectre and the Comedian — real named Edward Blake — who raped her mother and was later revealed to be her biological father. It would seem Laurie has taken on her father’s last name, at least for the purposes of this show.
There are numerous other ties from the new ‘Watchmen’ trailer and the original comic book if you look close enough including the final shot in the video that seems to reveal Dr. Manhattan’s return to Earth.
Check out the trailer and get ready for ‘Watchmen’ to land on HBO this October.
