Who watches the Watchmen? Pretty much anyone who knows that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ original comic book run is one of the greatest works of fiction ever written, that’s who. But when it comes to Watchmen screen adaptations, the source material has never actually been fully adapted. Sure, Zack Snyder’s 2009 movie is, in many ways, faithful to Moore and Gibbons’ work, even recreating many of its panels – but it makes major changes in the final act, swapping out the arrival of a giant fake mutant squid in New York for a more grounded Doctor Manhattan-styled attack. And the astonishingly great 2019 Watchmen HBO miniseries from Damon Lindelof proved to be a sequel series to the original comic (yes, it’s squid-timeline canon) rather than an actual adaptation. So there’s reason to be excited, then, for Watchmen Chapters 1 & 2 – a two-movie animated adaptation of the comic, set to bring the entire story to the screen. Check out the trailer:
As with Snyder’s movie, there are plenty of familiar comic panels here turned into motion-picture form: the Comedian being flung from his apartment window; Jon Osterman being Doctor Manhattan-ified in a tragic accident; Nite Owl and Silk Spectre II kissing against a mushroom cloud backdrop; Rorschach reading from his cranky diaries. And while there’s a bit of 2D-meets-3D texture work in the animation, the visual style itself is largely in tune with Gibbons’ original art – particularly the unconventional colour schemes. While there’s no glimpse of squiddy in this teaser, the fact that the films are being dubbed a “faithful animated adaptation” suggests we’ll see [REDACTED]’s full mad plan play out here – likely making it ideal viewing before going into a rewatch of Lindelof’s incredible show.
There’s no official date for when the Watchmen animated adaptation will land – but according to reports from the Annecy animation festival, Chapter 1 is expected to release later in 2024, with Chapter 2 to follow in 2025. Fine, maybe we’ll rewatch the HBO series first then.