8 Things Watchmen TV Show Must Do Differently To Zack Snyder's Film

Maybe it's a good idea to depart from the source material...

by Ewan Paterson
watchmen billy crudrup
Warner Bros.

Well, it's happening folks. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen - the book everyone keeps on saying can't be adapted to screens big and small - is getting a TV show, courtesy of Lost alum Damon Lindelof.

This'll mark the second time, of course, that the book has made the page-to-screen transition, having already done so in 2009 thanks to the efforts of Zack Snyder. Without getting into the myriad of reasons why the film can barely touch the book (seriously, why are we still having this conversation?), there are certain things it did - and didn't do - that assured a divisive response awaited its release.

Now, ignoring the fact that Moore and Gibbons' seminal 1986 novel is nigh-impossible to adapt to either mediums, there are certain ways to translate the Watchmen license to another setting. Granted, Moore won't be pleased, but there's plenty in his universe that lends itself well to a cinematic format - just not the main story itself.

Indeed, DC themselves have mined the world before in Before Watchmen, exploring the narrative surrounding the Minutemen and the exploits of Hollis Mason, the original Nite Owl. Although controversial at the time, many of the stories produced in that event really got to grips with Moore's world in a totally respectful way; Darwyn Cooke's Minutemen series is a testament to that.

There are plenty of avenues for the Lindelof-led production to go, but staying away from the Synder's work would serve them well.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.