Watchmen Trailer Features First Look at the Owlship

The latest trailers for Watchmen, HBO's follow-up to the acclaimed comic book series of the same name, feature a number of familiar imagery to fans of the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons comic. Among them is "Archie," the Owlship piloted by Dan Dreiberg (Nite-Owl II) in the comic. Whether this means that Dreiberg will play a significant role in the series or not is unknown; there is certainly the possibility that somebody else has access to Archie. We already know that Ozymandias (Jeremy Irons) will be a major player, for instance, and as we saw in Doomsday Clock, the idea of his using his knowledge of Dreiberg to gain access to Archie is a pretty obvious leap to make.

The Owlship -- which existed both as a practical set and a visual effect in Zack Snyder's Watchmen movie -- is one of the most iconic visuals of Watchmen, and certainly one of the most memorable to casual fans of the movie who may tune in for HBO's reinvention. We get very little context for what's going on with it in this trailer, except that it is being chased by someone not entirely friendly.

That could mean just about anything, though; the series seems to take place in a world where Ozymandias's schemes have been outed to the world, making him the world's smartest fugitive. Depending on how much information the outside world has learned, it's possible that Nite-Owl and Silk Spectre, who knew the truth about Adrian Veidt's crimes and did nothing to turn him into authorities at the end of Watchmen, could be on the run, as well.

"Damon Lindeloff has a very specific approach to that material," production designer Mark Worthington told ComicBook.com last month. "I can't tell you what that approach is. What I can say is we are guided more by that than anything else. Damon is a geek, too. He was obsessed with the Watchmen series as a kid. I think we all were. That was a watershed graphic novel for the whole form, as we all know. You're inspired by all of it. There it is. There's the original object and it's what you get excited about, passionate about it. I think Damon's take will be different, is different. It inherently has the DNA of the original Watchmen with a very specific take that he will put on it.

"It's yes and. Yes, of course, we're inspired by the original. Yes, of course, we're respectful of what that meant and what it is as an object. But then Damon has his own way of extending that and taking it to a new place because he's not redoing it, he's creating something that's other than that. I don't know. We'll see how people respond. I think people are going to like it."

The synopsis for the series reads, "Set in an alternate history where 'superheroes' are treated as outlaws, drama series Watchmen, debuting this fall from executive producer Damon Lindelof (HBO's The Leftovers) embraces the nostalgia of the original groundbreaking graphic novel of the same name while attempting to break new ground of its own."

Watchmen will premiere on HBO on October 20.