Before he was the divisive director behind Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Zack Snyder was the divisive director of Watchmen. The 2009 film adapted the timeless Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon graphic novel of the same name, which is about as classic as they come. The film received some mixed response, and new rumors claim that Warner Bros. could be trying their hand at a second adaptation. It seems that Warner Bros. might be in the earliest stages of making an R-rated Watchmen animated movie.
This rumor comes from Film Buff Online, who received a tip from a reader, forwarding them a marketing survey gauging the reception of potential Warner Bros. projects. Of the titles that were on this list, a direct-to-video Watchmen animated film was present. The project is listed as "upcoming" and would be a "faithful adaptation", animated in the art style of the graphic novel. It was also written that the potential film was anticipating an R-rating. None of this has been confirmed by Warner Bros., but if something like this is in the works, it is most likely in the earliest stages of development.
This is not the first time that another Watchmen project has tried to get off the ground. Back in 2015, Zack Snyder said he had met with HBO executives to discuss a possible Watchmen television series. Unfortunately, nothing more has ever really been said about that particular project.
It makes sense for Warner Bros. Animation to be considering a second go at Watchmen. Not only is it still a hugely popular comic, but the company has found recent success with R-rated animated adaptations, most notably The Killing Joke. That film wasn't terribly well received thanks to some very questionable changes to the Batman-Batgirl relationship, but it did well monetarily. Justice League Dark received a bit more positive reviews, so the market is there.
The marketing survey also apparently lists several other comic books that Warner Bros. would like to adapt from DC Comics and Vertigo imprints. Some of the titles included were Batman: The Long Halloween, Swamp Thing, Red Sun, Injustice (based on the video game), Fables, Preacher, Lucifer, and iZombie. Those last three are notable for already being successfully adapted into television series, but nothing precludes them from getting the cartoon treatment.
This is all still unconfirmed though, and Warner Bros. hasn't officially announced anything. But if it's true, then we've got a lot of things to look forward to. As for Watchmen, plenty of fans have already envisioned their take on a cartoon, like this Internet classic envisioning Watchmen as a Saturday morning cartoon. Check it out.
Pretty hilarious, right? And not at all like the aforementioned animated movie that might be in the early stages of thoughts.
Hopefully, there will be some more updates about this soon, so stick with CinemaBlend and we'll keep you updated with new information as soon as it becomes available.
