Watchmen Showrunner Reveals Doctor Manhattan’s Legacy in New Series

There are a lot of questions surrounding the upcoming HBO series set to riff off of the seminal comic series Watchmen, the seminal work from writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons. And while half of the creative team has since distanced himself from every aspect of the story’s continuation, that hasn’t stopped DC Comics from exploring new avenues to carry on the legacy. The latest attempt comes in the new series by Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof, who is crafting a quasi-sequel that will be the first live-action version of the series since Zack Snyder’s fan favorite film.

But Watchmen has a to of questions to answer, especially since the show will be considered a sequel after Ozymandias’ attempt to unite the world’s superpowers against a common enemy, which happened to be a hoax, under the blessing of the god-like being Doctor Manhattan.

Now Lindelof is opening up about Manhattan’s influence in the new series, revealing that he won’t play a major part in the show — at first. While addressing the series approach of the real world and the violence depicted on it, the showrunner explained that the character will continue to loom large because of his legacy.

“I started to think that for Watchmen maybe the more interesting point is to think about masking and authority and policing as an adjunct to superheroes,” Lindelof said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “In Watchmen, nobody has superpowers — the only super-powered individual is Dr. Manhattan and he’s not currently on the planet.”

He added, “So I felt like we wouldn’t be deconstructing the superhero myth because all the characters in Watchmen are just humans who play dress up. It would be more interesting to ask psychological questions about why do people dress up, why is hiding their identity a good idea, and there are interesting themes to explore here when your mask both hides you and shows you at the same time — because your mask is actually a reflection in yourself.”

It sounds like Watchmen will still employ the prescient themes of the original comic book series, but will still take liberties to explore new aspects more relevant to modern society.

Watchmen is scheduled to premiere on HBO on October 20th.