New Watchmen Movie Announced For 2024 - But This Time, It's Animated

Who watches the (animated) Watchmen?

San Diego Comic-Con is in full swing, with announcements left and right that are leaving fans excited for the future of geekdom. While big screen giants like Marvel Studios won't be gracing Hall H due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, that doesn't mean superhero films are being forgotten about this year. Following the world premiere of DC Studios' "Justice League: Warworld," the company announced an animated "Watchmen" film. Widely considered one of the greatest comic books of all time, "Watchmen" continues to inspire contemporary creatives with its daring visuals and nuanced narrative around power.

The animated take on Alan Moore and David Gibbons' iconic comic series will debut in 2024. The project was announced alongside an adaptation of "Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths." No creative team or voice cast has been announced. Plot details on the animated "Watchmen" flick are slim, and it remains to be seen if the adaptation will be a faithful retelling of the iconic comic series, or if it will take the route of HBO's "Watchmen" show and go in its own unique and inspired direction.

This isn't the first time "Watchmen" has gotten the cinematic treatment. Zack Snyder famously brought the "unfilmable" comic to the big screen with 2009's "Watchmen." It was met with mixed reviews. Since then, Snyder's "Watchmen" has achieved cult-like status, thanks in part to an "Ultimate Cut" that clocks in at over 200 minutes.

Some love Snyder's "Watchmen," but Alan Moore refuses to watch it. "I would be the last person to want to sit through any adaptations of my work," the icon told GQ in 2022. "From what I've heard of them, it would be enormously punishing. It would be torturous, and for no very good reason." In the same interview, Moore called out Damon Lindelof, the creator behind 2019's "Watchmen" limited series on HBO. Set decades after the original comic, Lindelof's "Watchmen" serves as a "remix" of the original source material, playing around with the world Moore and David Gibbons created. 

While Lindelof's "Watchmen" was widely praised at the time of release — many consider it to be one of the best superhero projects to manifest in recent years, Moore was disinterested in the creative's reinterpretation of the source material. "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 told GQ. "They think that it was a dark, gritty, dystopian superhero franchise that was something to do with white supremacism. Did they not understand Watchmen?" 

Moore isn't interested in adaptations of his work, but it's evident that audiences are pining for more "Watchmen" content. The franchise continues to persist in popularity, nearly 40 years after its debut. Here's hoping the animated "Watchmen" film can do Moore and Gibbon's seminal work justice.