Recasting Watchmen For HBO's New Series

HBO is taking on one of the most famed graphical novel of all time with a new television show based on Alan Moore’sWatchmen . Creator Damon Lindelof has line the show is a " remixed " version of the comic books - not a lineal adaptation or a sequel -and the pilot film late cast a identification number of actors asoriginal characters- includingRegina King , Tim Blake Nelson and Don Johnson . However , we still do n’t know how many of the fiber from the graphic novel will look in the show , or who will be playing them .

Although review were mixed , manyWatchmenfans experience like Zack Snyder ’s 2009 version ( especially the Director ’s Cut ) was a near - unadulterated adaptation of the comics , and there ’s no denying that it had a fantastic cast . Jackie Earle Haley ’s gravelly interpreter fit the bitter , violent vigilante Rorschach to a football tee , while Jeffrey Dean Morgan expertly catch the brutish machismo of The Comedian . But now , a decade afterwards , there ’s plenty of new ( and matured ) talent out there . Before we hear official cast news forWatchmen ’s definitive characters , here are our selection for worker who could be great in those roles .

Jay Duplass and Callum Keith Rennie as Nite Owl

There are two persona who have hold the mantle of Nite Owl in Watchmen : the original Nite Owl , Hollis Mason ( played by Stephen McHattie in Snyder ’s film ) , and his protégé Dan Dreiberg ( who was played by Patrick Wilson ) . Hollis began his career as a police officer but , having been inspired by comic book superheroes , later decided to get into the colorful calling of vigilante crimefighting with the Minutemen . Veteran TV actor Callum Keith Rennie , whose recent credits includeMarvel ’s Jessica JonesandThe Man in the High Castle , would be big casting for the persona .

As for Hollis ' successor - Dan Dreiberg is the ultimate geek : someone who idolized superheroes so much that he actually became one of them , and even after retirement keeps his outfit , gadgets , and ship down in an effort to preserve those day . Unlike Rorschach , Nite Owl II never quite handle to feel completely well-situated in his superhero guise , at one point describing it as " sort of an embarrassment … a schoolkid ’s phantasy that got out of deal . " Either half of the filmmaking / dissemble duo of Jay and Mark Duplass could be heavy in this role , given how well their works have explored the challenges and anxiety of modern maleness . However , we ’ll give the edge to Jay Duplass , who last twelvemonth offered a solemn critique of the traditional superhero mythos of good guy beating up spoilt Guy in an consultation withIndieWire . For that reason Duplass is n’t interested in blockbuster superhero movies , but he could be perfect for the part of Dan Dreiberg .

Related:Damon Lindelof Confirms Watchmen TV Series Won’t Adapt Comic Story

Tatiana Maslany and Jessica Walter as Silk Spectre

Most recently well recognise for playing Lucille Bluth inArrested Developmentand voicing Mallory Archer inArcher , Jessica Walter first shot to celebrity in 1971 after asterisk in Clint Eastwood ’s directorial debut , Play Misty For Me . Perhaps it ’s too predictable to fan - cast Walter as a haughty , remote maternal design … but she ’s just so great in those function . Sally Jupiter ( neé Juspeczyk ) was the original Silk Spectre and is a complex character : nostalgic for her offence - fighting days despite the force she put up at the hands of The Comedian , and eager to mold her daughter in her own image .

With that in head , the actress cast as Laurie Juspeczyk would want to be strong enough to push back against those expectations . Given that BBC ’s acclaimed sci - fi seriesOrphan Blackcame to a close last year , it would be great to its enormously talented ( and heavily - working ) lead Tatiana Maslany in a unexampled heroine role - and we ’d love to see Maslany and Walter collide in a female parent - girl dynamic .

Alexander Skarsgård as Ozymandias

True Bloodstar Alexander Skarsgård is a democratic choice among rooter casts forWatchmen- and with good rationality . With his blonde hair and chiseled jawline , he ’s a dead dead ringer for the fiber as limn in the comics , and can convey both vulnerability and unshaking intensiveness in his roles . Adrian Veidt a.k.a . Ozymandias does n’t reveal his handwriting until near the end ofWatchmen , when it ’s revealed that he dispatch The Comedian to protect the mystery of his program to repair the world through a horrific phony foreign flack that would claim the lives of millions of New Yorkers . Ozymandias ' is a character that go uttermost intelligence with uttermost arrogance , but is at last prove to economise humans - even if his " less obvious valour " takes the pattern of mass - slaughter .

Page 2:Rorschach, The Comedian and Doctor Manhattan

Iain Glen as Rorschach

With a fictitious character like Rorshach , who keeps his nerve overcompensate whenever he can help it , finding an actor with a typical and powerful voice is arguably more important than finding an actor who look on the nose like Walter Kovacs without his mask . The gravelly lineament of Jackie Earle Haley ’s phonation , and his talent for express Rorschach ’s ever - simmer passion , made the ink daub - faced anti - hero one of the most memorable and well - executed elements of Snyder’sWatchmen . HBO would n’t have to look far to find an actor for Rorschach ; withGame of Thronesnow wrapping up filming on its eighth and final season , Jorah Mormont actor Iain Glen ( who proved he can rip off an American idiom in his abbreviated but palpably sinister character inKick - Ass 2 ) could be the perfect tantrum .

Jon Hamm as The Comedian

Hamm may be most placeable for his lead part as smooth - tattle advertising executive director Don Draper inMad Men , but last class he more than prove his potential to play a great interpretation of the Comedian in Edgar Wright’sBaby Driver . Hamm ’s character , Buddy , is initially just one penis of the picture show ’s heist crew , but in the third act he issue as a raging and near - unstoppable villain . By turns hideous , charismatic , and pathetic , Eddie is a compelling character and one that would really admit Hamm to show off his considerable stove as an thespian . He is also of an ideal in - between old age where he could practicably play a young Eddie Blake in flashback , and also be senesce up a little to trifle the older version of the role .

Related:Watchmen Star Jeffrey Dean Morgan Says It Was ‘Ahead of Its Time’

Jonathan Tucker as Doctor Manhattan

Watchmenmay be full of complicated and virtuously - gray characters , but few are harder to bottom than Doctor Manhattan , a being so highly germinate that he ’s close to a deity than a gentleman’s gentleman . Doctor Manhattan starts his life as atomic physicist Dr. Jon Osterman , but after his consistence is destroyed ( by having its " intrinsical field " take off ) , Jon ’s cognisance survives and he pee-pee himself a new body - a body that ’s blue , radioactive , and does n’t have much sake in jade apparel . play a god is n’t an gentle labor , but one histrion who has done so latterly is Jonathan Tucker , who play Loki in Starz ’s adaptation ofAmerican Gods . Tucker was also control late in another HBO series , Westworld , where he diddle the sadistic leader of a group of Confederados , and he had a memorable guest office as a consecutive killer Matthew Brown inHannibal .

Now , you may be notice a approach pattern of Tucker playing villain roles , and there ’s no denying that he had a talent for doing so . But that ’s all the more ground why we ’d like to see him bring that kind of intensity , and the power to steal every scenery he ’s in , to a graphic symbol as challenging as Doctor Manhattan .