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Movies & TV

17th Jan 2020

Watchmen unlikely to return for a second season

Dave Hanratty

Watchmen season 2

The HBO series may be one-and-done.

It hasn’t been the best week for fans of prestige television.

First, the news broke that Mindhunter may not be returning for a third season with Netflix allowing the principal cast to pursue other work as David Fincher moves forward with different projects.

If you’re a fan of HBO’s recent Watchmen sequel TV series, the bad news just keeps on coming with a second season looking increasingly unlikely.

If you happened to miss the show, it did a great job of picking up where the original graphic novel left off; introducing new characters – Regina King’s Sister Night proved a particular standout – and re-contextualising others while also offering intelligent commentary on racism in America and the world beyond.

Show creator Damon Lindelof – who also worked on Lost and The Leftovers – had previously stated that he didn’t intend to continue Watchmen beyond its nine-episode run and it would seem that he’s sticking to his guns.

According to several sources connected with the project, Lindelof has officially bowed out of Watchmen, but not before giving his blessing to the network to continue on without him.

Step forward HBO President of Programming Casey Bloys who put the ball firmly in Lindelof’s court while speaking at an event for the Television Critics Association (TCA).

“It is really up to Damon at this point, he is thinking about what he wants to do,” said Bloys.

“Truly, I don’t know at this point whether it is a returning drama series or a limited series. I think one of the things Damon did so brilliantly was, he opened up this entire world.

“So maybe there is another version with a whole new set of characters. I don’t know because Damon doesn’t know, and I’m taking his lead on this.”

Despite conflicting reports, the buzz is that Watchmen is indeed done. These things usually come in threes, so what beloved contemporary TV show is next?

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