Beyond a couple of teasers, we haven’t seen too much from Damon Lindelof’s upcoming “remix” of Watchmen and we know even less about it. The HBO series serves as more of a continuation/re-contextualization of Alan Moore’s graphic novel, the events of which are considered historical in Lindelof’s telling. It also has one helluva cast, including Regina King, who previously knocked it out of the damn park in Lindelof’s The Leftovers—the existence and immense awesomeness of which completely justifies whatever the heck he’s doing with Watchmen, to be honest. But back to King: Like most characters in the series, her role is something of a mystery, and while these brief teasers posted to the show’s official Instagram don’t shed too much light on what her deal is, some light is better than none at all.
As with the Rorschach teasers from a couple of weeks ago, the three teaser videos combine to make a single teaser image when looking at the account’s page. The videos themselves are incredibly brief, and show King wearing some sort of law enforcement garb with evocative beads; police officer, but make it religion. If we’re going by Occam’s razor here (hey, LOST reference), the most simple explanation is the most likely, and the combo of religious apparel with law enforcement imagery is a fascinating one loaded with thematic potential.
It also fits with whatever the heck Lindelof is doing with the Rorschach character, who seems to have inspired some kind of militia. That’s a fitting evolution for the character, who acted as an anti-hero vigilante, but whose actions and—SPOILER ALERT—martyrdom could have eventually inspired a legion of aggressive followers. This is mostly speculative, but in our current political landscape, a post-mortem reassessment of/meditation on Rorschach in the Trump/MAGA era seems right.
Watchmen premieres on HBO later this fall, and with production recently wrapped, we can probably expect Lindelof to draw the curtain back even farther in the coming months.