HBO’s upcoming Watchmen series remains a fascinating unknown quality. Everything we’ve seen and heard so far indicates that it’s heading in precisely the opposite direction of Zack Snyder’s 2009 film adaptation. Whereas that project slavishly adapted the aesthetic, narrative and setting of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ legendary graphic novel, HBO apparently intend to use it as a mere springboard for a more contemporary retelling of a similar story.
What that means is that there are infinite possibilities as to what’s going to happen and who’s set to appear in it. However, we do have a couple of clues, including this newest tidbit of information that could prove to be quite revealing.
It was recently announced the Jeremy Irons was set to join the cast as “an aging and imperious lord of a British Manor.” That description doesn’t really square with any of the existing characters from the graphic novel, but some further info from That Hashtag Show sheds a little more light on the role, describing it as follows:
“Highly intelligent and won’t let you forget it. Think William Hurt with slight Asperger’s. He’s used to being obeyed and always correct. Arrogant, erudite and patrician. Physically fit, he’s never missed a workout in his life.”
To me, that sounds a hell of a lot like Adrian Veidt aka Ozymandius. He’s the closet thing Watchmen has to an arch-villain, deducing that the path to world peace is to unite the world against an outside adversary, which leads to him dropping a giant psychic squid monster on New York. If this is an older version of the character, it could suggest that HBO’s show takes place in the decades following that event, with Veidt retreating to a manor and presumably pondering whether the peace he achieved was worth the horrible price.
Or, it could be someone completely new that we haven’t heard of yet. Either way, this show is shaping up to be something very interesting indeed for longtime Watchmen fans and we can’t wait to see how it develops from here.