While many were sceptical when it was first announced that Damon Lindelof (The Leftovers) and HBO were looking to bring Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen to the small screen, the resulting series cast aside any doubts and anxieties, staking its claim not only as one of the best shows of the year, but the entire decade.
Although Lindelof has previously stated on numerous occasions that his Watchmen was planned as a single self-contained season, the showrunner has now admitted to THR that he is open to the prospect a second season, if the idea for the story is right.
“Am I interested in a second season? The answer to that question is yes, in the same way that I’m interested in anything that calls itself Watchmen,” said Lindelof. “I do find it interesting, where the story could go next. More importantly, I think we always think about how season two of a show is the continuing adventures of the first season of the show. That’s what happened on Lost. That’s what happened on Breaking Bad. But there’s another thing that’s happened on television. Look at season two of The Wire. That season, it’s the docks. McNulty and the cops are relegated to being second-stringers, no pun intended, in the second season of The Wire. The third season is “Hamsterdam,” the fourth season is a deep dive on public schools. I think Watchmen, not unlike Fargo or True Detective, can accommodate a much larger space of storytelling. That’s interesting to me.”
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“As for me? I haven’t had the idea,” he continued. “I had to convince myself if this was going to be a satisfying nine-episode series, we wouldn’t bury things for later, having done the opposite of that thing on both Lost and to some degree The Leftovers… Look at where the needle is, and run it all the way down to empty, knowing wherever the car stops, that’s it. Now, is a helicopter going to come down, lower its ladder, I hop on and the journey continues? Anything’s possible. But I have to be able to answer the question: “What’s the idea for the second season?” I don’t think I’m interested in, nor do I think the audience is interested in, “Let’s just do more of the same.” Because then it wouldn’t be Watchmen. It requires a new idea. Maybe that idea is going to come from someone else. I would welcome that, one hundred percent.”
What do you make of Lindelof’s comments? Would you like to see the story continue into a second season, or do you agree that it would work better with a completely new story set within the Watchmen universe? Or should it be left as “one and done”? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, or on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Watchmen stars Regina King (The Leftovers), Jeremy Irons (Justice League), Don Johnson (Miami Vice), Tim Blake Nelson (The Incredible Hulk), Louis Gossett Jr. (Iron Eagle), Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Aquaman), Adelaide Clemens (Rectify), Andrew Howard (Truth or Dare), Tom Mison (Sleepy Hollow), Frances Fisher (Titanic), Jacob Ming-Trent (White Famous), Sara Vickers (Endeavour), Dylan Schombing (Sharp Objects), James Wolk (Tell Me a Story), Lily Rose Smith (The Vampire Diaries), Jean Smart (Legion), Hong Chau (Downsizing) and Dustin Ingram (Sun Records).
