HBO’s 9-Part Sci-Fi Series Fixed A $185 Million Hollywood Movie

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HBO is known for creating high-quality television, but they don’t often directly connect their shows to big-budget Hollywood movies. However, in 2019, they released Watchmen, a nine-episode series inspired by the famous comic book of the same name, created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.

Interestingly, this new series appeared a decade after the story was first adapted into a movie. That film, directed by Zack Snyder and released in 2009, had the same title, and unsurprisingly, the series and the movie differed in some ways.

Ultimately, HBO’s adaptation of the story was much more powerful and memorable than the expensive movie, which didn’t earn back its production costs. The key difference likely lay in how each project approached the original source material.

HBO’s Watchmen Embraced The Graphic Novel’s Ending

Alan Moore is highly respected among comic book fans. He’s known for his work on iconic and groundbreaking comics like Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and Batman: The Killing Joke. Moore is a skilled storyteller who builds immersive and detailed worlds for his narratives.

Alan Moore is well-known for speaking out about how his stories are adapted and generally dislikes seeing his work changed for other formats. He feels stories are best experienced in their original medium and should stay true to that form to maintain their power. Sadly, he has consistently voiced strong opposition to both the Watchmen movie and the recent television series.

The TV show honors Moore’s original work more effectively because it doesn’t retell the comic’s story. Instead, it begins 34 years after the graphic novel concludes. The movie, however, directly adapts the comic, making substantial changes to the plot and delivering a significantly different ending.

Why Zack Snyder’s Watchmen Didn’t Include The Giant Squid

Image via Warner Bros. Ent.

In the graphic novel, Ozymandias is exposed as the main villain. He orchestrates a devastating attack on New York City using a colossal squid, causing widespread death and destruction. Then, he cleverly presents himself as a hero by ‘saving’ the world from the very disaster he engineered, framing it as an alien invasion.

Zack Snyder’s film takes a very different approach. Instead of a shared enemy, Ozymandias tricks everyone into believing Dr. Manhattan caused the destruction of New York, and then pretends to stop it. Dr. Manhattan, convinced by Ozymandias’s logic, kills Rorschach to cover up the deception and ensure peace remains under Ozymandias’s control.

As a film buff, I always appreciate when an ending really changes how you see everything that came before. In this case, it does exactly that – it makes Dr. Manhattan way more interesting and layered. What started as a story seemingly about Ozymandias’ plan actually becomes about the whole team and their combined impact. It’s a brilliant shift in focus, honestly.

Is HBO’s Watchmen Better Than The Zack Snyder Movie

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Ultimately, Zack Snyder’s movie tells the same basic story: Ozymandias manages to bring the world together, but through a deception. The heroes decide to keep this secret, except for Rorschach, who feels it’s vital for the truth to be known.

While Snyder arrives at the same conclusion, the journey feels unnecessarily complicated and appears to be driven by style over substance. Instead of innovating, he took a strong story about corruption, greed, and the price of peace and turned it into a visually-focused experience, ultimately failing to develop the characters effectively.

In the end, the TV series succeeded because it stayed true to the heart of the original story, making it a more respectful tribute to Alan Moore’s intent. However, the show also had its own goals, telling a new story while using the popular Watchmen name. Both versions changed the original story, but HBO’s version at least moved forward, rather than simply revisiting the past.

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2026-03-16 20:38