Watchmen: How the comic ending affects the HBO series

This weekend, Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof is taking fans back into the world of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ classic comic book series Watchmen. Fans may recall that Zack Snyder’s Watchmen film was released only a decade ago, and it was largely faithful to the comic. However, it made a few significant changes to the ending.

Regardless of what happened in the movie, the Watchmen TV series is treating the comic book as canon. That means there was a giant alien squid! The truth behind that incident may also play a big role on the show, as the new era of peace between the Soviet Union and the United States was built on a lie. There was no giant alien squid. It was an elaborate hoax played upon the entire world. That may have been the only thing that prevented the nuclear annihilation of mankind.

SYFY WIRE’s Jackie Jennings and Angelique Roche are taking a deep dive into Watchmen’s comic book ending to explain its potential impact on the show. Moore and Gibbons set up their twist early, by establishing that several scientists, artists, and special effects creators were missing. An ongoing subplot revealed that the seemingly kidnapped people weren’t kidnapped at all. Instead, their project was to create a lifelike alien that could stand up to scrutiny. Most of them believed it was for a film. And when their assignment was completed, they were all killed to prevent them from revealing the truth.

Within the movie, Snyder changed it so that the attack on New York wasn’t the sudden appearance of the giant squid. Instead, the godlike Doctor Manhattan was framed. That affected his decision to leave the Earth. But in the comic, the nearly omnipotent being simply left to find a new purpose and to perhaps create new lifeforms. On the show, it looks like Doctor Manhattan may be coming back. It remains to be seen if he’ll be happy with the way humanity has squandered its second chance.

Check out the entire video for more Watchmen details, then catch the series premiere on Sunday, Oct. 20, on HBO!