After months of little sneak peeks buried in “coming soon” montages, HBO has finally released a much longer teaser for Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen series, which premieres sometime this fall. Previous teasers didn’t give us a whole lot to go on, but this new trailer is downright meaty, featuring a veritable checklist of awesome shit I want to see: Shirtless Jeremy Irons meditating in a casual robe, an army of Rorschach vigilante dudes who weirdly resemble a flock of Juggalos (whoop whoop!), Jean Smart (no further explanation required), Don Johnson doing his latter day Don Johnson-in-a-cowboy-hat bit. Story-wise, you definitely get a better sense of what Lindelof has called a “remix” of Alan Moore’s beloved graphic novel. There are elements—like the Rorschach masks, for instance—that offer a direct connection to the original story, while Lindelof’s series introduces new characters played by the likes of Johnson and Regina King (who also starred in The Leftovers).
It seems that vigilantes have come out of “hibernation,” and there is some sort of “reckoning” afoot—not entirely dissimilar from how vigilantes retreated into hiding, only for a new generation to emerge in Moore’s book. Like that story, I suspect there will be a sense of something cyclical happening in Lindelof’s series, as underscored by the ominous clock-ticking throughout the teaser. Only time (sorry) will tell.