Now that the end of 'Game of Thrones' is well in sight, could 'Watchmen' be the next HBO series that captures people's attention?
Like 'Game of Thrones', 'Watchmen' is based on an influential source material and it has legions of die-hard fans. It has a killer writing team behind it, including 'The Leftovers' showrunner Damon Lindelof. The cast is fantastic - Don Johnson, Regina King, Jean Smart, Jeremy Irons and Tim Blake-Nelson, to name a few - and the concept itself is incredibly timely.
'Watchmen' was first released back in 1986, acting as a commentary on the terror of nuclear war that loomed over the '80s. The comics essentially imagined a world where superheroes were real - but they were then outlawed by the government and forced to work in secret. Zack Snyder's movie adaptation was decent enough, but it was all just a bit too laboured and over-the-top to have the same impact as the comic-book.
Not only that, you had the distracting sight of Dr. Manhattan's glowing blue dong everywhere. Yes, really.
Anyway, the TV series 'Watchmen' hopefully won't have that problem as the end of the movie saw Dr. Manhattan leave this plane of existence. The TV series is considered by Lindelof to be a continuation of the story, so it'll be interesting to see how the alternate world has changed since then.
'Watchmen' begins airing on HBO in the autumn.
