Who Watches the Watchmen Adaptations?

Rorschach in the trailer for Watchmen: Chapter 1. — Image: Warner Bros. Animation

Warner Bros. and DC have gone back to the world of Watchmen off and on ever since the 2009 live-action movie. While it’s been a few years since the last time they returned to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ world, they’ve apparently still got Watchmen fever and are now looking to bring the superhero story as a movie once more, but this time animated.

Billy Crudup on Picking Mr. New York…Dr. Manhattan in Zack Synder’s Watchmen

During its recent panel at the Annecy Animation Film Festival, WB Animation provided a first look at the animated adaptation. While it sports CG animation in the vein of Battle of the Super Sons, everything else appears to be more or less as it was in the comic: Rorschach has growly narration, you see Doctor Manhattan’s origin, and so on. Zack Snyder’s adaptation was dinged for what it left out or changed, so if that was what kept you from watching or enjoying that, this new version may be more your speed. (That said, who knows how much, if any, these movies will adapt Tales of the Black Freighter, a comic-within-a-comic.)

Watchmen was announced last year alongside the animated version of Crisis on Infinite Earths. Before that point, rumors had been swirling around the internet for years alongside the idea of a Watchmen follow-up, which we eventually got with the aforementioned Doomsday Clock and the HBO live-action series. DC loves itself some Watchmen, but do we need… this? Are we not at a point where this particular comic gets to finally rest and not be trotted out on stage every decade? Beyond being animated, what will this new version ultimately offer that can’t be found in just reading the comic or accepting that Snyder made his changes and grabbing the movie to watch over the weekend?

The first part of Watchmen will release later this year—the Blu-ray website lists a date of August 13, which is presently unconfirmed—and Chapter II will release in 2025.

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