WATCHMEN Series Star Tim Blake Nelson Reveals Details on His Mysterious Character
Damon Lindelof is deep in production on his HBO Watchmen series and thanks to actor Tim Blake Nelson (O Brother, Where Art Thou, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), we have some interesting new details about the mysterious character that he plays in it.
While a guest on the Empire Film Podcast, he revealed that he’s playing a new character named Looking Glass, which as many of you know, is not a part of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' original Watchmen graphic novel. He says:
"My character's name is Looking Glass, and it's a really interesting, intriguing character. I don't really completely understand him, and that's intentional. Damon Lindelof metes out facts about your character as you go along... So I'm learning as I go along with this guy is, and trying to... It's almost like fresco painting. The clay is always wet."
He goes on to describe Looking Glass as "a good looking cop, the native Oklahoman isn't simple as his rural accent makes him appear to be. A top interrogator and behavioral scientist, he may also be a bit of a sociopath."
Nelson goes on to explain how why he thinks that Alan Moore will appreciate how Damon Lindelof is using the source material for the series saying:
"Damon Lindelof... is doing something that I think Alan Moore actually will appreciate, which is that he's treating the Watchmen novel as a history book, and he's imagining the world created by the Watchmen now. And he's using that as a prism through which to examine a lot of issues currently on the surface of American culture and politics."
The show is set in the same alternate history universe where superheroes are treated as outlaws, but the story will focus on a whole new present day setting and characters.
The Watchmen universe will be expanded in the series and Damon Lindelof has stressed that he would not be messing with the original story. Lindelof previously explained:
This story will be set in the world its creators painstakingly built…but in the tradition of the work that inspired it, this new story must be original. It has to vibrate with the seismic unpredictability of its own tectonic plates. It must ask new questions and explore the world through a fresh lens. Most importantly, it must be contemporary. The Old Testament was specific to the Eighties of Reagan and Thatcher and Gorbachev. Ours needs to resonate with the frequency of Trump and May and Putin and the horse that he rides around on, shirtless. And speaking of Horsemen, The End of the World is off the table…which means the heroes and villains–as if the two are distinguishable–are playing for different stakes entirely.
When talking about the new characters that will fill the story, Lindelof said:
"Some of the characters will be unknown. New faces. New masks to cover them. We also intend to revisit the past century of Costumed Adventuring through a surprising yet familiar set of eyes…and it is here we will be taking our greatest risks."
The cast for the series also includes Regina King, Don Johnson, Louis Gossett Jr., Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Adelaide Clemens, Andrew Howard, Tom Mison, Frances Fisher, Jacob Ming-Trent, Sara Vickers, Dylan Schombing, Lily Rose Smith, and Adelynn Spoon.
Lindelof will write and executive produce the series and Nicole Kassell will direct and executive produce.
Watchmen is expected to be released in 2019.