WATCHMEN at TCA: Live-Blog

WATCHMEN is coming to HBO this fall, and writer/executive producer Damon Lindelof, director/executive producer Nicole Kassell, and star Regina King (who plays Angela Abar) will be on hand to preview the new series. Follow along for what they have to say…

3:39 PM: We just saw an extended promo, which was basically the Comic-Con teaser, plus a bit more footage. Jean Smart’s character seems like could be much more pivotal to things than first meets the eye.

3:40 PM: “This is at the root of where this story began,” Lindelof says of why they chose to have white supremacists target police in the show. Trying to think about the original source material, the book was highly political, it was about what was happening in American culture at the time. What in 2019 is the equivalent of the nuclear standoff. It seemed like it was undeniably race and policing.” He says one of the cool things about the original is you don’t know what is real history and alt-history.

3:44 PM: “It’s definitely not supposed to be a world you recognize,” Lindelof says. He hopes fans will watch the first season to prove why the show exists as it is. “One of the things that makes WATCHMEN WATCHMEN is it isn’t interested in who the good guys and bad guys are.”

3:45 PM: “Whether or not it’s WATCHMEN, you use that word almost as an adjective,” Lindelof says. He says it will depend on each viewer whether it feels like WATCHMEN to them. The graphic novel is something that he holds close to his heart and he went through an intense period of fear about messing it up—and he’s not sure he’s out of it yet.

3:47 PM: “I’m a fan,” Lindelof says of WATCHMEN. “When the fans rise up and they have a hive mind approach and the media culture says there’s an empirical belief that the LOST finale sucked or X, Y, Z, that’s not all fans. What their portion is to the overall fandom is anyone’s guess…one of the things I learned from LOST is the fans had demands, there were things they wanted, but they wanted to be surprised.” While he is a little torn on what actually entails fan service, he says the ultimate job is to make himself happy with the projects he does; otherwise he’d be paralyzed.

3:50 PM: “The good thing about WATCHMEN is we worked with the stunt coordinator who worked on THE LEFTOVERS, so he already knew my strengths,” King says. They found a double that resembled King, which was something that was important to her.

3:51 PM: “Yes, but Joss probably has a better sense of what the fans need than I do,” Lindelof says of Joss Whedon saying writers should not give fans what they want and they should give them what they need.

3:52 PM: Are they worried Rorschach’s mask will be utilized for white supremacy? Lindelof says it would be hubris to think the work would infiltrate that way, but they wanted to handle things respectfully. But the characters are appropriating Rorschach’s mask, too, which is handled.

3:53 PM: “I don’t think I’ve made peace with it,” Lindelof says of creator Alan Moore’s displeasure with having his graphic novel adapted. “I have made personal overtures to connect with him to explain what I’m doing, and he’s made it clear he doesn’t want that.” He jokes that Moore is now his surrogate father figure he’s trying to prove himself to.

3:57 PM: “The whole idea of are you wearing a mask or are you not wearing a mask” is something they discussed, especially with Angela’s character, Kassell says. The masks were a big part of how they designed the look of the show.

3:58 PM: “I think it’s fascinating,” Lindelof says of online anonymous content. “The less inclined you are to know who you are, the more you are empowered to put toxicity out there.” There’s no internet in WATCHMEN, even though it’s set in modern times.

3:59 PM: “She, like all of us, is a product of her experiences and her environment,” King says. “As you continue to watch the episodes, you’ll see why she’s a woman who feels she needs to wear several masks…because we see things through Angela’s eyes, we’re reminded we go through our day wearing different masks.” On a different note, she also points out the show has her first sex scene. Overall, it was “fun to work muscles I’ve never worked before…this was a huge undertaking.”

4:03 PM: “The 2019 of the show is not significantly different than the 2019 we’re existing in,” Lindelof says. Big difference: Robert Redford is the president, and has been since the early ’90s. (There are no longer term limits in the show.)

4:05 PM: What happened in the WATCHMEN comics is canon. “Everything that happened in those 12 issues cannot be messed with,” Lindelof says.

WATCHMEN, Series Premiere, Fall 2019, HBO

RELATED:

• Watch the WATCHMEN Season 1 Trailer
• WATCHMEN: HBO Releases First Teaser
• HBO Orders WATCHMEN to Series

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