HBO’s ‘Watchmen’ Recruits James Wolk As Recurring Character

Zoo and Mad Men veteran James Wolk has been cast in a major recurring role on Watchmen, Deadline reports.

No official details have been made available yet, but Deadline reports that Wolk plays a junior senator from Oklahoma.

The URL for the Deadline story includes the word “Keene,” likely a reference to the Keene Act, which was the anti-vigilante law passed in 1977 in the world of the story. That Act was named for U.S. Senator John David Keene, although since Watchmen the TV series is supposedly a sequel set well after the events of Watchmen the comic book, one assumes that he would be quite old by the time the story takes place.

While incumbent U.S. Senators who continue to be re-elected for decades are not unheard-of, it would be strange to cast Wolk as a man who would necessarily be a senior citizen. If the “Keene” reference has anything at all to it, it is more likely that Wolk will play the son of the original Senator Keene or something like that.

It is not clear whether John David Keene would even be available to HBO, since the character was created as part of Warner Bros. Pictures’ viral marketing campaign for Zack Snyder’s 2009 Watchmen film.

Wolk is currently starring in CBS All Access’s Tell Me a Story which premiered on Halloween. The series is executive produced by Scream‘s Kevin Williamson.

Unlike Zack Snyder’s feature film, this take on Watchmen won’t attempt to retell the story of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s graphic novel. Instead, the Damon Lindelof-produced series will take place in an alternate history, using the same premise and themes as a road map of sorts.

During New York Comic Con, Gibbons praised Lindelof and HBO’s new direction with the property.

“The original is something that we always saw as standing alone and it never in our mind required prequels or sequels or homages or pastiches or anything like that,” Gibbons said. “It isn’t that we thought it should be treated with great reverence, it’s just that we thought: If you’ve done something right just leave it alone.”

The all-star cast of Watchmen includes Regina King, Jeremy Irons, Don Johnson, Tim Blake Nelson, Louis Gossett Jr., Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Andrew Howard, Tom Mison, Frances Fisher, Jacob Ming-Trent, Sara Vickers, and Dylan Schombing. Produced for HBO by White Rabbit in association with Warner Bros. Television, based on characters from DC.

As of now, the new Watchmen series doesn’t have an official release date, but HBO has revealed that it will arrive in 2019.

Are you excited for HBO’s Watchmen? Let us know in the comments!