Regina King on how Watchmen still resonates, and the possibility of season 2

Watchmen was one of the most interesting new shows of 2019, a sequel to Alan Moore’s seminal superhero comic of the same name, but with a brand new plot and cast of characters courtesy of The Leftovers creator Damon Lindelof. Years after the original Watchmen ended, America is a very different place. Robert Redford has been president for decades, and instituted reforms that address historical injustices against black people, including those who suffered at the Tulsa race massacre of 1921, when mobs of white residents attacked black residents and businesses in Tulsa, Okalahoma, where black people had built a thriving community.

Mistreatment of black people by those in power has obviously been on a lot of people’s minds lately, with protests still going on around the world following the killing of George Lloyd by a police officer in Minneapolis last week. The story of Watchmen seems more relevant ever. Star Regina King, who played the police officer/superhero Angela Abar, talked with Yahoo TV about it shortly before the protests actually started. “Look, we’re talking about 1921, this happened,” she said. “Cut to [today], same s**t’s going down. There’s the same mentality happening. We’re not having another massacre, but it feels like we’re having little mini-massacres all around.”

In fact, Watchmen seems like it’s prescient in a lot of ways, although not all of them intentional. In the series, police officers wear masks to hide their identities from white supremacist groups who have lost power under the new regime, and who are plotting to make a return. When King and company made Watchmen, they likely weren’t thinking about a future where people around the world were wearing masks to protect themselves from the coronavirus, but it’s eerie all the same. “It’s funny,” said King, “because a girlfriend of mine just sent a picture of Sister Night to me and said, ‘Who knew your costume was going to be our go-to grocery store attire?'”

Mark Hill:HBO Official

One of the only downsides to Watchmen was that we only got one season, and most people involved with the show seem to content to let it stand on its own. “I feel like ‘Never say never,'” King said about the possibility of a second season. “I do feel like we don’t want it to be done unless it can be on par with the first season. And I just feel like that’s a really tall order. But if anyone can fill that order then I think Damon Lindelof can. I think we all as castmates feel like if Damon leads, we’ll follow.”

"[Because if he comes back], we know that it’s going to be smart, we know that it’s going to be thought-provoking and still be entertaining. That’s not an easy thing [to accomplish]. Watchmen was historical, it was genre-bending…Anything that you can think of that you like in entertainment, we had a bit of it."

The other downside was that we never actually got to see President Robert Redford on screen. “That was one of the first questions I asked, ‘Is Robert Redford going to be in the show?,'” King remembered. “I totally sounded like a 12-year-old. I think they may have reached out to him. I don’t know what the exchange was, but in my 12-year-old hopes and dreams, just in my mind that Robert Redford could be threatening an appearance was exciting.”

It’d be funny if Robert Redford had shown up but he was played by Kurt Russell or something. Ideas for next time.

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h/t Syfy Wire