One could argue the world does not need yet another adaptation of Watchmen, Alan Moore’s game-changing 1986 comic-book series. After the controversial 2009 Zack Snyder movie and the critically acclaimed 2019 TV series, yet another version might feel superfluous. And yet, based on comments from the writer of the forthcoming animated movie Watchmen: Chapter 1, this latest adaptation will avoid Snyder’s mistakes by not changing anything from the original series.
This week, Warner Bros. dropped a trailer for Watchmen: Chapter 1, which is directed by Brandon Vietti and slated to hit digital platforms on August 13. Starring Matthew Rhys as Nite Owl, Katee Sackhoff as Silk Spectre, Titus Welliver as Rorschach, and Michael Cerveris as Dr. Manhattan, the trailer looks surprisingly straightforward. This no-frills approach is apparently by design.
Writer Alan Moore is infamous for disliking most adaptations of his work, and refused to even see the 2009 Snyder version. But there’s a very real chance that Moore — and Moore purists — may want to watch Watchmen: Chapter 1. According to its writer, J. Michael Straczynski, essentially nothing has changed from the original comics.
On his Facebook page, Straczynski claimed his adaptation of Watchmen isn’t really an adaptation at all. “By ‘adapted’ I mean strictly configuring the structure to work in a movie,” he wrote. “I saw no need to write more material or change what works in the book. It needs no Moore than that.”
When one commenter asked if Moore would hate this adaptation just like all the others, Straczynski quipped, “If so, then he hates his own work, because I didn’t change anything.”
Snyder’s take replaced the comic book’s infamous alien squid ending and opted against presenting its more technologically advanced alternate reality. But more crucially, Snyder’s Watchmen seemed to lionize troubling characters like Rorschach and the Comedian. While Moore presents all of Watchmen’s characters as somewhat amoral, the 2009 version struggled to capture their nuances.
Moore has long claimed Watchmen is fundamentally unadaptable. In 2008, he said, “There are things that we did with Watchmen that could only work in a comic, and were indeed designed to show off things that other media can’t.”
That may be true, but if any adaptation could bridge that disconnect, it might just be this new animated movie. If its goal is simply to take a comic book and make it move, it might end up the greatest Watchmen of all.
