The season finale of HBO’s breathtaking Watchmen sequel-slash-adaptation-slash-remix-slash-whatever airs Sunday night, finally giving us answers to the questions that have plagued us for weeks, like what the Millennium Clock actually does and who, exactly, is getting greased up and sliding around the Tusla sewers. At least, we hope so, since this could be the end of Watchmen entirely—creator Damon Lindelof said back before the show premiered in October that it was only meant to be one standalone season.
But now that Watchmen has aired (and has become such a massive hit for HBO) it sounds like Lindelof is open to more. Variety asked Lindelof and a handful of the show’s masterminds, including directors Nicole Kassell and Stephen Williams and star Regina King, about making a second season—and they got some very interesting (albeit vague) answers.
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Per Variety:
With the finale looming, the question of whether this season of ‘Watchmen’ is one-and-done, or the first chapter of a larger story, has yet to be resolved. And asking the people who worked on it if they want it to return brings no more clarity.
“[It’s] a question so above my pay grade that I would not even know how to begin to venture an answer,” says Williams.
“I’m still kind of recuperating from production,” says Kassell. “I just think it’s gonna take time to say what Season 2 would be.”
“Absolutely!” says King.
Lindelof mostly dodged the question just like everyone else with the exception of King, whose “absolutely” might’ve just wishful thinking, but it sounds like he’s at least warming to the idea of future seasons.
“I am deeply, profoundly appreciative for how well received the season has been up until now, and I don’t want to feel like I’m ungrateful, but I still don’t have any inclination whatsoever to continue the story,” he says. “And that is largely and almost exclusively based on the fact that I don’t have an idea. If I’m going to be involved in any more ‘Watchmen,’ I should be able to answer the questions, why, and why now, and the answers to those questions shouldn’t be, ‘Well because that’s what you do, because the first one was good.’”
He chuckles. “I’m not saying there shouldn’t be a second season of ‘Watchmen,’ and I’m not even saying that that season shouldn’t feature some of the characters in this season of ‘Watchmen.’ I just don’t know what it should be.”
These are all mysterious and cryptic answers to a seemingly simple question—but what else should we expect from the creators of such a mysterious and cryptic show? We’ll have to wait and see if Damon Lindelof can finally crack the idea for a second season. To paraphrase a certain blue man, nothing ever really ends.
