Doctor Manhattan Will Be A Looming Presence In HBO’s ‘Watchmen’

Doctor Manhattan will be a looming presence in HBO’s Watchmen series from Damon Lindelof.

According to Watchmen executive producer Damon Lindelof, Doctor Manhattan won’t be a huge character when the series first begins. HBO’s Watchmen follows on from Alan Moore’s superhero deconstruction in the original story while adding to the world the author introduced fans to in 1986. The focus is on a new masked vigilante, Sister Night, who is investigating a white supremacist terrorist group who idolize Rorschach.

While Doctor Manhattan will appear in Watchmen, he won’t be a huge character since he’s rumored to be hiding on Mars when the series begins. But thankfully, the new heroes won’t need to deal with superpowered terrorists, since Damon Lindelof explained in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly that Doctor Manhattan is the only person in the world with abilities.

“I started to think that for Watchmen maybe the more interesting point is to think about masking and authority and policing as an adjunct to superheroes. In Watchmen, nobody has superpowers — the only super-powered individual is Dr. Manhattan and he’s not currently on the planet.”

It seems that the intimidating nature of Doctor Manhattan’s god-like powers will loom over the Watchmen series as it unpicks the superhero genre in its own unique way while still paying homage to Alan Moore’s original work. Lindelof went on to say that that it’s not just about the psychology of superpowered heroes, but about the psychology of vigilantes.

“So I felt like we wouldn’t be deconstructing the superhero myth because all the characters in Watchmen are just humans who play dress up. It would be more interesting to ask psychological questions about why do people dress up, why is hiding their identity a good idea, and there are interesting themes to explore here when your mask both hides you and shows you at the same time — because your mask is actually a reflection in yourself.”

Are you looking forward to seeing Doctor Manhattan in HBO’s Watchmen or do you want to see more of the new characters? Let us know in the comments section!

Here is the official synopsis for HBO’s Watchmen:

Set in an alternate history where “superheroes” are treated as outlaws, WATCHMEN embraces the nostalgia of the original groundbreaking graphic novel while attempting to break new ground of its own.

Watchmen stars Regina King, Jeremy Irons, Don Johnson, Jean Smart, Tim Blake Nelson, Louis Gossett Jr., Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Hong Chau, Andrew Howard, Tom Mison, Frances Fisher, Jacob Ming-Trent, Sara Vickers, Dylan Schombing, and James Wolk. The series is produced for HBO by White Rabbit in association with Warner Bros. Television, based on Alan Moore’s graphic novel co-created and illustrated by Dave Gibbons and published by DC.

Watchmen will premiere on October 20, 2019 on HBO. Stay tuned for the latest news on Doctor Manhattan’s role in the series!

Source: Entertainment Weekly