Last night, former Leftovers showrunner Damon Lindelof shared an Instagram photo indicating that he was starting work on HBO’s new TV adaptation of Watchmen, and now we know why he suddenly decided to start writing. According to The Hollywood Reporter, HBO has formally given Lindelof’s Watchmen a pilot order and commissioned additional scripts, which basically means that—at the very least—the premium cable network will produce a single episode of the show and then look at scripts for other episodes before deciding whether or not it will move forward.
Watchmen, of course, was previously adapted into a movie by Zack Snyder in 2009. The original comic was created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, and it largely revolved around a superhero murder mystery involving some old and depressed crimefighters. It’s far too early to say how Lindelof’s show will differ from Snyder’s movie (which was a fairly faithful-yet-soulless adaptation), but hopefully Lindelof can at least find a way to include the squid, the pirates, and all of the supplemental documents that fill in the backstory of the Watchmen universe.