Will ‘Watchmen’ Get a Season 2 on HBO?

The Watchmen series of graphic novels, created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, has more than made its mark on Hollywood. After a 2009 Watchmen film, its history-bending tale of gods that live as superheroes among humans became an HBO series in 2019. The show was adored by critics and fans. Most impressively, viewers who lived and breathed Watchmen liked it just as well as those completely new to the comic. The timely series shined a light on the ugly truth of racism in America, beginning with the Tulsa race riots in 1921.

But what does all that mean for a potential second season? Is it so good that HBO should just leave it alone, or will creator Damon Lindelof give fans a Watchmen Season 2?

Watchmen showrunner Damon Lindelof opens up about a potential season 2

Lindelof, also the man behind Lost and The Leftovers, has recently said he’s open to the idea of a second Watchmen season, but the idea for a season 2 isn’t there yet.

He told Vulture:

I’ll say it’s still too early to answer that question. Right now the space that HBO is in and that I’m in is we’re asking the question, Should there be another season of Watchmen? And if there should be another season, what would it be? I’m not saying I don’t want to do it, or it shouldn’t exist. I’m just saying, ‘Boy, every idea that I had went into this season of Watchmen.’

Lindelof explained he will try to stay open.

“I’m going to put up my antenna, see if it’s receiving anything,” he said. “If it’s not receiving anything in a reasonable period of time … then I think we move on to your question, which is, if not me, then who?”

HBO, Lindelof continued, thinks the show “should be a continuing series.” However, there’s no rush.

“Maybe it’ll continue in a year or two,” he said. “I want to see more Watchmen.”

The Watchmen showrunner compared his series to other critically acclaimed dramas like Fargo and True Detective.

“They were ongoing anthology shows, but each season had a design with a beginning, middle, and end that allowed subsequent seasons to feature entirely different characters, or even be set in entirely different time periods,” he said. That would be a wonderful option for a show like Watchmen.

What about the ‘Watchmen’ cast? Are they contracted for an ongoing series with HBO?

When Entertainment Weekly asked Lindelof if the actors on the show were still under contract for another season 2, he deferred.

“That’s an HBO/Warner Bros. question,” he said. “Contractually speaking, I don’t think it’s come up yet. I don’t know what the rules of the hold are.”

However, Regina King, the lead on Watchmen Season 1, is currently tied up. She’s “directing a movie right now and I think will be doing so for the foreseeable future,” Lindelof explained. The writers have also “gone on to other things.” He does have hope, though:

I guess I have it in the back of my mind where if I called them up and they were available and I could be like, ‘Hey, we’re putting the gang back together for another heist,’ and they would be able to do it. But maybe I’m naive about that.

But, EW’s sources told them “deals with the show’s top actors were made for an ongoing series.” Good news for Watchmen fanatics.

The HBO series could have new characters–and a new showrunner

However, more recently, Lindelof told USA Today “that he’s told the story he wants to tell and has no interest in a second season.” He also gave his “blessing” to HBO to have someone else create a second season.

But, could there (or should there) even be another Watchmen season with a different showrunner at the helm, especially given the big shoes they’d have to fill from season 1? Lindelof is open to the idea. However, HBO’s President of Programming Casey Bloys says that’s unlikely: “It would be hard to imagine doing [Watchmen] without Damon involved in some way.”

But maybe Watchmen winning the WGA award for Best New Series got Lindelof’s creative juices flowing. He told Deadline at the WGA Awards in February 2020 that he never wants to “close the door completely.”

“If two, three years from now I say, I just had another idea, it will be that much harder to open. But I would say it’s barely ajar,” he explained. While there are “no current plans to make any more Watchmen, he said, he’s open to new ideas—and new showrunners.

“If the idea comes, I would be enthusiastic about it, the idea may not come from me,” he said. “I would be super excited about it coming from someone else. So my position hasn’t changed.”