Damon Lindelof Designed Watchmen as a Self-Contained One Season Series

In addition to screening the premiere of the new Watchmen series at New York Comic-Con over the weekend, Damon Lindelof gave more details on what will be explored this season while also revealing this may be the only one we see.

In discussing the upcoming series with Deadline at the convention, Lindelof revealed that unlike his work on ABC’s long-running mystery series Lost, he and his writer’s room crafted the nine-episode season as a self-contained story that would have a total resolution.

“Does that mean that there isn’t going to be anymore Watchmen? Not necessarily,” Lindelof said. “Does that mean that I will be working on subsequent seasons of Watchmen? I don’t know is the answer to that question. We designed these nine episodes to be as self-contained as the original 12 issues. We wanted to feel like there was a sense of completeness, to resolve the essential mystery at hand.“

Though he acknowledges the fact there is plenty of potential to keep the series going following the first season, and that it could very well happen should the audience show enough hunger for more, Lindelof describes the first nine episodes as a great enough challenge on their own that he and his crew wanted to ensure they nailed this season before they even started toying with the idea of future ones.

Set in an alternate history where “superheroes” are treated as outlaws, Watchmen embraces the nostalgia of the original groundbreaking graphic novel while attempting to break new ground of its own. Originally published as a 12-issue miniseries beginning in 1986, Watchmen quickly become one of sequential art’s most acclaimed stories. The original story centers on a murder-mystery before unfolding into a planet-altering conspiracy that ultimately asks where the fine line is drawn between heroes and villains. Check out the original comic for yourself by purchasing it here.

The series is made up of an ensemble cast that includes Jeremy Irons (Justice League) as an older Ozymandias, Regina King (The Leftovers), Don Johnson (Django Unchained), Louis Gossett Jr. (Hap and Leonard), Tim Blake Nelson (Colossal), Adelaide Clemens (Rectify), Andrew Howard (Bates Motel), Frances Fisher (Masters of Sex), Jacob Ming-Trent (White Famous), Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (The Handmaid’s Tale), Sara Vickers (The Crown), Tom Mison (Sleepy Hollow), Jean Smart (Fargo) as a mysterious FBI agent, and James Wolk (Zoo, Tell Me a Story).

Lindelof serves as creator, writer, showrunner, and executive producer on the Watchmen series, with Tom Spezialy, Stephen Williams, and Joseph Iberti also executive producing. Nicole Kassell will executive produce and direct the pilot. The series comes from Lindelof’s White Rabbit in association with Warner Bros. Television and is based on the DC Comics characters.