Jean Smart, Jeremy Irons on how their characters have changed since the original Watchmen

HBO’s Watchmen is a fantastic follow-up to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ 1986 graphic novel. From the mind of showrunner/creator Damon Lindelof (Lost, The Leftovers), the series takes place 30 years after the apocalyptic ending to that book, when a giant space squid appeared in Manhattan, killing millions.

Instead of New York, the show takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where cops wear masks to hide their identities from a racist terrorist group called the Seventh Kavalry. Two characters from the original comic — the heroes Silk Spectre and Ozymandius — return, with Silk Spectre (Jean Smart) now working as an FBI agent using her real name, Laurie Blake; and Ozymandius (Jeremy Irons) living in parts unknown for reasons we don’t yet understand.

SyFy Wire talked to both actors about how their original characters fit into this new story. Smart says that her character’s “complete rejection of her past makes her a more interesting person.” Far from going out as a masked hero, Laurie is now trying to stop them as part of the FBI’s Anti-Vigilante Task Force. When we first see her, she’s pulling off a fake bank robbery to lure in a masked vigilante operating in defiance of the superhero-banning Keene Act, and she succeeds.

Watchmen. Mark Hill/HBO

HBO maintains a website dedicated to filling out the backstory of Watchmen’s world: Peteypedia, consisting of documents put together FBI Agent Dale Petey, who’s assisting Blake in Tulsa. According to that material, Blake kept on doing the hero thing for a while, adopting the name the Comedienne in honor of her biological father Edward Blake. Eventually, she and Nite Owl — another hero hero from the original comic — were captured by the government. She cooperated and went over to the FBI. He didn’t and is currently in jail.

But old habits die hard. Even in her new role, Blake is still telling pitch black jokes, just like her dad. “Apple don’t fall too far from the tree,” said Smart, although Laurie likely wouldn’t thank you for pointing that out. “Even when she was young and she was kinda tough-talking and chain-smoking, I mean, she was, she was not a reticent flower whatsoever. She’s only become more of that as she’s gotten older.”

Laurie’s in a tricky place. She misses Nite Owl, as evidenced by the pet owl she keeps in a cage. She also misses her first love, the godlike Doctor Manhattan, who’s been on Mars since the end of the original comic. “Of course, she’s been without Doctor Manhattan for 30 years,” Smart said. “I keep forgetting that she was so young when she met Doctor Manhattan. She was a teenager, so she’s never gotten over that schoolgirl crush, you know? His personality was kind of eh.”

Jeremy Irons cake. Watchmen official. Colin Hutton/HBO

As for Ozymandias — real name Adrian Veidt — Irons won’t give away much about where he’s staying or why he’s staying there, but it doesn’t sound fun. “It’s so diminished from what he had that he’s probably quite bored and frustrated.”

Remember that giant alien squid that killed millions of New Yorkers? Ozymandius was the one who put it there, his idea being that if he could unite the people’s of Earth in fear of an extraterrestrial threat, they wouldn’t annihilate each other through nuclear war. Despite his megalomania, Irons thinks he feels bad about it. “I think what he’s lived with … is probably is a sense of guilt. He’s bright enough to question what he did and lives with that, and he’s probably not too happy.”

"He thinks it was the right thing and carries necessary guilt. Probably like Tony Blair, who thought that going into Iraq was the right thing, but you know, probably carries some guilt."

Irons doesn’t see Ozymandias as a villain, although he admits that his behavior is becoming increasingly erratic. “I think there’s a difference between a comic character [and a TV character],” Irons said. “I think you can play more colors and play different things. I mean, in the graphic novel, he seems to me to be a little bit wooden. At the point of our story, I think, uh, Adrian is not doing too well. But we’ll see what happens.”

Incidentally, we have a pretty good idea of where Adrian is, but we’ll have to wait for the show to confirm it to be sure.

Watchmen airs Sunday nights at 9:00 p.m. EST only on HBO.

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