HBO releases the first footage from its Watchmen series

HBO is making a TV show based on Watchmen, Alan Moore’s seminal 1986 graphic novel that ushered in a new wave of gritty, morally ambiguous superheroes…sorta. The as-yet-untitled show is actually going to be more of a sequel, or a reworking, or something; it wont be a straight adaptation of the original comic, in any case.

We’ve gotten dribs and drabs about the series since its announcement, including a few on-set photos published by SlashFilm and an animated teaser from HBO, with a pithy tagline: Nothing Ever Ends.

Nothing ever ends. #WatchmenHBO #DamonLindelof pic.twitter.com/ioJU0dQipw
— HBO (@HBO) August 17, 2018

But now we have some actual footage…sorta…released directly to the show’s Instagram account. In fact, it’s the first thing ever posted on the show’s Instagram account, and as of this writing, the only thing. It must be important. Let’s take a look:

So it’s a police officer with a yellow thing over his face. Okay. In the background, smoke rises from the city street.

It’s not much to go on, and little about it screams “Watchmen” to me, although the mask over the officer’s face looks a little like the one worn by superheroic detective/borderline psychopath Rorschach, a key character from the comics.

NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 04: A cosplayer dressed as Rorschach during New York Comic Con 2018 at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on October 4, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Andrew Toth/Getty Images for New York Comic Con)

Yeah, that’s gotta be what they’re going for. Rorschach’s mask was an ever-shifting screen of black and white, while this one is a solid mass of yellow. We suppose HBO could superimpose something over it using special effects, but wouldn’t it be green in that case?

Anyway, the cryptic Instagram post comes within days of directors Joe and Anthony Russo tweeting out their own cryptic image to mark the end of filming on Avengers 4. Directors have really gotten wise to how to use social media to generate buzz. And if that’s the aim, the more vague a tease, the better.

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HBO’s Watchmen series is produced by Damon Lindelof, the guy behind the famously cryptic Lost, so it’s no surprise he’d be interested in this sort of stunt. Any Watchmen fans out there have any ideas?

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