Alan Moore Has Harsh Words For HBO's Emmy-Winning Watchmen

When the HBO limited series "Watchmen" premiered in 2019, critics met it with tremendous praise, earning an incredible 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and winning numerous awards, including an Emmy for Outstanding Limited Series. Variety said the series was a near-perfect season of television, but there are currently no plans for a Season 2, even though Season 1 left so many unanswered questions. 

"Watchmen" served as a continuation of the original 1986 DC Comics series, taking place 34 years after the comic's events. Following a newspaper's publication of Rorschach's journal, which detailed all the events of the vigilante Ozymandias' attack on New York City, the Seventh Kavalry insights violence in the Tulsa area. In an event known as the "White Night," the radical group attacked the homes of many Tulsa police officers, resulting in all but two leaving the force. Afterward, the police are required to hide their identities, becoming costumed officers. One cop, Angela Abar (Regina King), investigates the Seventh Kavalry as they try to find and steal Doctor Manhattan's powers. Damon Lindelof created the series, which includes an all-star cast of King, Don Johnson, Tim Blake Nelson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Jeremy Irons. 

Lindelof could have simply adapted the comic book, but Zack Snyder's 2009 film already did that. Instead, the "Lost" creator decided to pay homage to the source material while relating the pre-established universe to our society in a way that very much paid off. Many people would assume that, because of its immeasurable success, "Watchmen" co-creator and comic book author Alan Moore would have nothing but praise for HBO's continuation, but that could not be more wrong.

In an incredibly rare interview, legendary comic book author Alan Moore sat down with GQ to talk about his life and promote his new novel "Illuminations." The interview covers most of Moore's fantastic work, including comics like "Watchmen," "V for Vendetta," and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," which have all seen their own adaptations. When the interview shifts topics to those adaptations, Moore begins to rip into the HBO limited series.

Moore told GQ that he had not seen any of his work's adaptations because doing so would serve as a form of torture for the author. While he refuses to watch any of them, it's the "Watchmen" limited series he absolutely cannot stand.

He claims that the HBO series destroyed his original work and sent a hostile response to a letter from showrunner Damon Lindelof telling him he's disowned the project and that Warner Bros. should know to never contact him again. "When I saw the television industry awards that the Watchmen television show had apparently won, I thought, 'Oh, god, perhaps a large part of the public, this is what they think Watchmen was?'" Moore recalled. "They think that it was a dark, gritty, dystopian superhero franchise that was something to do with white supremacism. Did they not understand Watchmen?"

Following Fox's failed 2003 adaptation of "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," Moore grew to resent Hollywood altogether. In a 2020 interview with Deadline, the author said he thinks society's obsession with superhero movies is childlike and has brought down our culture and cinema drastically. So, don't expect to see Moore in line for any upcoming Marvel projects.