Watchmen Chapter 1 Animated Movie Trailer Released

The first chapter in the animated Watchmen adaptation arrives on Digital August 13th.

The iconic comic Watchmen is getting an animated adaption, and its first trailer has been released online. Fans have enjoyed Watchmen on the comics page as well as the big and small screen, with Warner Bros. Pictures releasing a Watchmen live-action film in 2009 and a live-action TV series on HBO in 2019. Warner Bros. and DC always seem to make their way back to the seminal story, and that trend continues with Watchmen Chapter 1, the first in a planned series of animated movies. With almost a month until the digital release date, the animated Watchmen offers audiences a new look.

A red band trailer for Watchmen Chapter 1 gets its R-rating for "violent content and some graphic nudity," which matches the overall tone of the graphic novel it's based on. And indeed, there are flashes of brief nudity and violence in the trailer. Rorschach greets the viewers as he narrates an entry in his journal, detailing The Comedian's death he's investigating. "Somebody knows why," Rorschach says. "These days, nobody's safe." The rest of the trailer sticks closely to the source material from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen, which features a group of retired superheroes in an alternate 1985 America who reunite after one of their own is murdered. 

What is the Watchmen animated movie about?

In an alternate world history shaped by superheroes, once-celebrated "costumed adventurers" have been banned by a society disenchanted with vigilantism. Now, in 1985, the murder of The Comedian, a hero-turned-government operative, draws the attention of Rorschach, the last of the outlawed vigilantes. Rorschach's investigation embroils his retired colleagues, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre, Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias, in conflict with their pasts, with each other and in a mystery that threatens their lives and a world on the brink of war.

Will Watchmen get a Season 2 on HBO?

The Watchmen movie marks the latest attempt to adapt the events of the maxiseries, following Zack Snyder's 2009 movie, and later HBO's award-winning television series in 2019. According to previous comments from HBO executive Casey Bloys, there are no current plans to continue the Watchmen series in any way, and it would ultimately be up to series creator Damon Lindelof to return to the project.

"Watchmen was so much his creation," Bloys previously told Variety. "If he doesn't think there's a story that he wants to put his heart and soul into, it's hard for me to think that it would be worth doing. It was a very special limited series for us. I would put it in the pantheon of HBO greats. If Damon ever wants to revisit it, he knows that it's an open door. But it is hard for me to imagine doing one without him."

Watchmen Chapter 1 is available on Digital August 13th.