Yup, that sure looks like an animated Watchmen trailer

We’ll be honest: We’ve never understood the point of doing a “faithful” adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen. For one thing, it’s a book, at least in part, about comic books, using the conventions of the form to illustrate various ideas about time, perception, and the nature of reality; its core narrative is disarmingly simple, once you pull away all the interesting flourishes and games that Moore and Gibbons are playing with its panels and alternate histories. It’s why, for instance, we’ve always been far more partial toward Damon Lindelof’s TV sequel to Moore’s story than Zack Snyder’s slavish cinematic recreation of it; the Watchmen show was messy, but at least it had its own ideas.

But we do not, as we frequently lament, rule the universe, and so we can only dutifully present to you the above: A trailer for Warner Bros.’ upcoming “two-part movie event” animated adaptation of the books, details of which remain weirdly vague, despite the fact that it’s technically been kicking around since like 2017. The trailer itself looks…okay…even though some of the efforts to recreate Gibbons’ linework (and John Higgins’ vibrantly apocalyptic colors) look kind of weird in 3D. (It doesn’t look fantastically more impressive than the Watchmen “Motion Comic” released back in 2008, if we’re being honest, just with a lot more, well, motion.)

Meanwhile, your guess is as good as ours on release details, or even casting. (We’ve seen places where Adam Driver is being credited as being in the voice cast, but honestly, who can say?) The animated Watchmen was supposed to be headed for a 2024 release, but the trailer’s framing of it as a “movie event” makes it sound like it’s going to end up landing on Max, instead of theaters. Really, this whole thing kind of caught us off guard: We’d forgotten it was announced, we’re a bit nonplussed by how it looks, and we’re not sure who it’s for. But it’s out there, and more details will presumably filter in soon.