Regina King wants Alan Moore to watch the TV Watchmen: “I would be so curious to hear his thoughts”
Exclusive: The legendary comic-book creator has disavowed the new adaptation, but its star hopes he might change his mind
It’s fair to say that legendary comic-book writer Alan Moore has a complicated relationship with adaptations of his work, with Moore – who has written Watchmen and V for Vendetta among other iconic graphic novels – often publicly disavowing screen adaptations of his work.
And when it came to the new TV series sequel to Watchmen, the situation was even more fraught. Originally, when the comic was created by Moore and artist Dave Gibbons the agreement with DC was that the copyright would revert back to the creators once the graphic novel was out of print.
However, DC never stopped printing it and never gave up the copyright, meaning Moore felt that the spirit of their agreement had been betrayed. When it came to this TV sequel, showrunner Damon Lindelof reached out to Moore hoping for his blessing – and despite Moore declining to give it (and also asking that his name not be used on it anywhere), series star Regina King hopes that one day Moore will decide to watch the drama anyway.
“Of course I do, of course I do,” King told RadioTimes.com. “To have the co-sign from Dave Gibbons makes all the difference, but you know, to have Alan watch it? Even greater.
“I would be so curious to hear his thoughts, you know,” she added.
More like this
“But I respect his position 100 per cent. As a human being, I would want someone to respect my position, even if you don't agree with it. And I can't say that I don't agree with his position.
“I just respect it, it's not actually about an agree or disagree thing.”
And despite Lindelof making the series without Moore’s blessing or permission, King says that she hopes the writer would see it as a respectful, loving take on the characters and his world.
“I feel that for those who are true fans of the graphic novel, they’ll feel that an homage was paid to the source material,” King told us.
“That's I would hope Alan Moore, if he ever did read any of the scripts or watch the show, would know too.
“This piece that Damon’s done is truly all respects due. All respect due to this piece of work that changed Damon, that informed how he wrote. I would hope that [Moore] would see it that way.”
Sadly, unless Moore does eventually decide to watch Watchmen we’ll probably never know for sure. And we wouldn’t count on that happening any time soon…
Watchmen airs on Sky Atlantic on Mondays at 9.00pm
