Watchmen Television Series

December 6th, 2017 by Proprietor

The comic book Watchmen changed the way people look at a comic book. Watchmen was created by Alan Moore, and originally was a deconstruction of the superhero genre. Moore wanted to use the recently acquired Carlton Comic heroes, but DC said no, so more created his own parables to the characters, and built the series around those characters. Considered the penultimate series, even today, Watchmen had been made into a movie. The movie was a decent portrayal, since the producers realized that sticking close to the source material would probably make the movie better. It did. Many people understood the story, regardless of not having read the actual comic. Though many comic fans whined over nit pick details, and claimed the changing of the ending really destroyed the movie for them, overall the movie was accurate to the source.

There had been rumors decades ago, and even years ago, that one of the prime channels on cable and satellite was looking into doing a Watchmen series. HBO, Cinemax, etc. were rumored to be looking into doing a Watchmen series, but costs were prohibitive. There was a short lived animated Watchmen series, though not very good.

Considering how Game of Thrones, and many superhero based series are now running on television channels, it seems like technology could bridge some of the gaps. Naturally a Watchmen series would have to be on HBO or even streaming services, due to the more adult content, but the series is something that could be affordably done, and almost be exactly like the comic book series. There is plenty of source material left out of the movie, due to time constraints, that the television series could have. The detail would be a great addition to the already known material in the movie.

The comic book series was 12 issues long. If HBO or some other company wanted to adapt the series into 6 seasons, and so many hours of television, this means two issues per season could be adapted. There might have to be some modification for television due to pacing concerns, but overall, the comic(s) could be faithfully adapted. The real concern is picking the right actors. Since the comic series takes place over several months, and filming the television series would take place over several years, actors aging might be a problem. Though most of the comic series characters are either in middle age or approaching middle age.

DC’s parent company, Warner Bros. has the opportunity to do something comic book based that would generate a lot of hype. So far DC has done well with television series versus movies. Supergirl, Flash & Arrow are doing well on television, so there is some opportunity for promotion. A Watchmen television series would be an outstanding way to create a show that already has a beginning, middle, and end, that is based on a popular property amongst the core group of fans. Those fans have a tendency to magnify and promote the property. It could be build as a more adult superhero series. Just a suggestion.

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