Why HBO's Watchmen Show Only Credits One Of The Comic's Two Creators

Back in 2008, when Zack Snyder's 2009 "Watchmen" film adaptation was still in production, comic book impresario Alan Moore clarified to Entertainment Weekly that, no, he didn't approve of the movie. Moore, of course, wrote the highly celebrated comic book on which "Watchmen" was based and felt that "Watchmen" was perfectly suited to its original medium. As such, translating it to film would be a disservice. "There are things that we did with 'Watchmen' that could only work in a comic," he explained, "and were indeed designed to show off things that other media can't." 

Moore, who's infamously grumpy on such matters, refused to have his name attached to Snyder's movie. To be fair, though, Moore was 100% right. Snyder's "Watchmen" film is visually similar to its source material, but its tone is way off and its story is rushed. It's not a great movie (though Roger Ebert felt otherwise).

Moore also didn't want anything to do with the "Watchmen" TV series that debuted on HBO in 2019. As he told GQ in 2022, he disowned the show "because the film industry and the comics industry seemed to have created things that had nothing to do with my work, but which would be associated with it in the public mind. I said, 'Look, this is embarrassing to me. I don't want anything to do with you or your show. Please don't bother me again.'"

"Watchmen" artist and co-creator Dave Gibbons, on the other hand, has no issues with adaptations. This is why Gibbons is credited as the sole author of "Watchmen" in both Snyder's movie and HBO's TV show of the same name.

It should be noted that the "Watchmen" TV series isn't another retread of the same story from the original comics (which were published from 1986 to 1987). Instead, it tells a different story set in the "Watchmen" universe's present day. As a reminder, the comics are set in an alternate version of the 1980s where Richard Nixon is still the U.S. President and the appearance of real-world superheroes decades earlier fundamentally altered history. Now, however, the world is rife with corruption, with the old-world superheroes all being corrupt, pathetic, or damaged in some way.

HBO's "Watchmen" series, by comparison, was created by Damon Lindelof and focuses on Angela Abar (Regina King), a police detective in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who doubles as a vigilante known as Sister Night. The show even begins with a dramatization of the infamous Tulsa Black Wall Street Massacre of 1921, a real-life event in which white supremacists attacked and burned down 35 square blocks of Black-owned businesses and injured hundreds of Black people. Lindelof's "Watchmen" series was praised for its daring ideas, winning 11 Primetime Emmys.

Moore didn't care about the accolades, telling GQ:

"When I saw the television industry awards that the 'Watchmen' television show had apparently won, I thought, 'Oh God, perhaps a large part of the public, this is what they think "Watchmen" was?' They think that it was a dark, gritty, dystopian superhero franchise that was something to do with white supremacism. Did they not understand 'Watchmen?'"

Clearly, Moore doesn't like the idea of someone putting a "spin" on his work. It seems he'd rather you just read his original comic books.

Again, the "Watchmen" show was widely celebrated upon its release, with /FIlm's Chris Evangelista even declaring it "your new TV obsession" in his review. Most folks similarly agree that the TV series' complex themes of police brutality and systemic racism are handled with tact and that its cast is all around excellent, including stars Regina King, Jeremy Irons, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.

Dave Gibbons, notably, has had no issues with the "Watchmen" comic book being adapted for other mediums. Case in point: He's credited as a consulting producer on both HBO's "Watchmen" TV show and the two-part 2024 animated "Watchmen" movie adaptation. In the case of the 2009 "Watchmen" film, the credits state the project is "based on a comic co-created by" Gibbons, with no mention of Alan Moore.

Gibbons, of course, is a prolific comic book luminary in his own right, having previously worked on Green Lantern comics, The Flash comics, Superman comics, and many, many others. He's also one of the main artists on the "Kingsman" comics (themselves having been adapted into a series of live-action movies) and has worked for DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, and even Marvel UK. An award-winning maestro of the medium, Gibbons appears happy to see his art translated to the big screen and is out there in the world. Meanwhile, Moore is better known for writing brilliant stories ... and being cantankerous about them.