However, showrunner Damon Lindelof has suggested that Season 2 may never happen, or if it does it will not be in the form that fans are hoping for. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, he suggested that if there is another season, it may turn the series into an anthology, with Season 2 focusing on new characters.
He said “This is a love letter and an examination of the original Watchmen … I wanted everyone to know this is not the middle of the trilogy, this is not the beginning of a seven-season run. In my opinion, the best iteration of any season of Watchmen would mirror the original [graphic novel] in that it would be a self-contained story with the resolution of a fundamental mystery.”
He added: “You could call something Watchmen and not even feature any of the characters who were in the original or in this season as long as they all occupy the same world. When I first spoke to HBO about [Watchmen], I used examples like True Detective and Fargo”—two series that follow an anthology format with new characters appearing in each season.
He has also previously said that he only wants to make one season of the show. He told Deadline: “I’m not being flippant when I say that the answer is one. We designed these nine episodes to be as self-contained as the original 12 issues. We wanted to feel like there was a sense of completeness, to resolve the essential mystery at hand.”
Even if there is a new season, it could be some time until the show has an HBO release date. He told Metro, “I haven’t had any ideas of what [a] subsequent series of Watchmen would be. Until those ideas come, I’m content with just letting this one sit out there for a while.”
That said, the show could continue with a new showrunner, with another creator giving us their vision of the world of the 1980s graphic novel. He told Paste: “It’s …not my story, right? I appropriated it. And so the idea that someone else could come along and do another season of Watchmen, that’s really exciting to me too. I would watch the f**k out of that. These nine episodes are sort of everything that I have to say at this point about Watchmen, and then we’ll kind of go from there.”
As for who could take over for Watchmen Season 2, he suggested a few ideas. When Paste suggested Ryan Murphy, the Lost creator said, “oh, my God. Yeah. Sign me up,” before suggesting himself, “Ryan Coogler’s Watchmen.”
Watchmen is streaming now on HBO Go and HBO Now.
