There Probably Won't Be a Second Season of 'Watchmen'

*Spoilers ahead* Looks like it might be one-and-done for HBO's hit new series, Watchmen.

HBO's critically acclaimed TV Watchmen finished its first season on Sunday, December 15h. A lot of loose threads got wrapped up. However, there were aspects of the show that were ambiguous

After the finale aired, showrunner Damon Lindelof talked with numerous publications about the first season of Watchmen. It seems like, as of now, this is it. There won't be another season of Watchmen.

The show ends with Angela inheriting the god-like powers from Dr. Manhatten. What she will do with that power?  Tackle white supremacy, according to everything we learned about her throughout these nine episodes. This is something Dr. Manhatten had a passive desire to do. In an interview with Deadline, Lindelof confirmed this, saying:"...indeed Angela Abar has got even a fraction of Dr. Manhattan’s powers, given the journey that she went on over the course of these nine episodes, I think that she is primed and ready to do something more impactful than Dr. Manhattan ever did."

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So it sounds like season two is in the planning stages, right?  Not exactly. In his interview with Deadline, Lindelof said he viewed this season as one complete story. Lindelof said that there was nothing saved for a potential second season:

I’ve consistently believed and still believe that these nine episodes are a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end. I have to acknowledge that not everyone’s going to see it that way, and I definitely don’t dispute any opinion that’s sort of like there should be more. I just don’t feel compelled to continue the story without a reason to do so. That reason should be a creative reason, idea-driven, and I don’t have any ideas for subsequent seasons of Watchmen currently.

He further confirmed his stances in an in-depth interview with Rolling Stone. Lindelof said his writer room used every idea they had:

Every single idea that we had is onscreen and presented in these nine episodes. And there isn’t anything that occurred to us that was like, ‘Oh, that would be a good Season Two. We should save that.'” Everything that we wanted to do, we did. So I feel like the plate is empty. There’s nothing rattling around in my brain right now that feels like a compulsion to do more. That said, I feel like Watchmen is bigger than me. Of course it is. It survived without me and endured as one of the greatest pieces of storytelling for 30 years before I had anything to do with it. So I got my turn at the wheel — just like I had a turn at the helm of Star Trek, and then I stepped back, and now others have taken it. I do have a desire for there to be more Watchmen. Maybe these nine episodes have demonstrated that the playing field is a little bit larger than previously thought. It may inspire someone else to tell a Watchmen story. But right now, I don’t have any more ideas.

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It does seem like Lindelof is hedging a bit. In another interview, this time with Vanity Fair, Lindelof said that he was going to take a vacation.  and see if he gets inspired:

I’m going to read a lot of books that have been piling up by my bedside and watch a lot of television shows and movies that I am desperate to see and then when I show back up in January, hopefully the antenna will be back up again. If it receives something that feels like it could be a another season of Watchmen, I would definitely be inclined to pursue it. There is no guarantee of if and when that’ll happen.

Even if this is the first and last season, fans of the show seem satisfied. On Twitter Watchmen fans were calling it one of the greatest seasons of TV of all time.

Source: Deadline, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair