It Doesn’t Look Like HBO’s ‘Watchmen’ Is Getting A Second Season

Creator Damon Lindelof has bowed out, but gave HBO his "blessing” to continue the story without him.
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It looks like we’re never going to get an answer to that “Watchmen” cliffhanger.

The show’s creator Damon Lindelof told USA Today on Thursday that he has no interest in making a second season of HBO’s critically acclaimed superhero adaptation — and the network doesn’t want to do it without him.

Lindelof, who also created “Lost” and “The Leftovers,” told the paper that he’s told the story he wanted to tell and is bowing out — though he added that he’s “given my blessing” to the network to make a second season, if it wants to do so with another writer/producer.

“It would be hard to imagine doing it without Damon involved in some way,” HBO programming chief Casey Bloys told USA Today, signaling that a second season is unlikely to happen.

HBO’s decision to not to move forward with a new person at the helm makes sense. The story in Lindelof’s adaptation of “Watchmen,” which concluded its nine-episode run in December, was developed entirely by him, and was not in the original 1980s comic book series.

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Regina King as Angela Abar — aka Sister Night — in HBO’s “Watchmen.”
HBO

The socially relevant plot, which revolved around issues of race and the criminal justice system, serves as a sequel to the comics, imagining what life would be like in an alternate-universe Tulsa, Oklahoma, where cops wear masks to conceal their identities and actor Robert Redford is president.

Although the news that a second season is unlikely is somewhat of a bummer to fans, Regina King — who starred in the series as Angela Abar/Sister Night — alluded that the show might be relegated to limited series status back in December.

“I know that Damon doesn’t even kinda have an idea of an entry point and an ending for a second season,” King said in an interview with Vulture at the time. “And I know he wouldn’t come onboard for a second season unless he did. I don’t want there to be a second season if it’s not going to at least be comparable to this first season, which is going to be really hard to do.”

Bloys also hinted to The Hollywood Reporter earlier this week that a second season would most likely not happen.

“Where we left it with Damon was he’s thinking about what he wants to do and I’m taking his lead on that,” he said.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story stated that Lindelof’s adaptation of “Watchmen” was a prequel to the comics. It was a sequel.

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