Damon Lindelof reveals why the first season of HBO’s Watchmen ended up having 9 episodes rather than its original 10.
In an interview with Collider, Damon Lindelof revealed that following the events of the sixth episode entitled “This Extraordinary Being,” where Regina King’s Angela Abar takes her grandfather’s nostalgia pills, the writing team couldn’t stretch the story to 10 episodes for this season so it was cut down by one episode for narrative reasons.
You can read Damon Lindelof’s explanation for cutting Watchmen down to 9 episodes rather than 10 down below:
“The original plan was to do 10. And, then, I think around the time that we had written the scripts for four and five, and understanding what episode six was going to be—and six needed to happen exactly when it happened in the season, in our opinion—that we felt like once six ended, that we were closer to the ending than we were to the beginning. Six didn’t feel like a mid point. It felt like, we now know everything that we need to know to move into the endgame. And, every way that we looked at it, it felt like if we were going to do seven, eight, nine and ten, one of those episodes was going to be filler. And I was like, ‘We’re just not doing the filler episode. We know exactly what we need to do in our endgame. It’s time to start doing it. I don’t want to stall.'”
Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen has received universal acclaim from critics, with much of the praise given to the writing on display. Based on this decision to cut down one episode from the original 10-episode plan, Damon Lindelof wanted to make sure that there was no excess to the story. And based on how the product turned out, this was certainly the right decision creatively.
What do you make of this? Do you think it was wise for Watchmen to cut down on one episode to avoid unnecessary filler? Sound off in the comments below, and be sure to continue following Heroic Hollywood for all the latest news on Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen and more of HBO’s hit series.
Set in an alternate history where “superheroes” are treated as outlaws, WATCHMEN embraces the nostalgia of the original groundbreaking graphic novel while attempting to break new ground of its own.
Watchmen stars Regina King, Jeremy Irons, Don Johnson, Jean Smart, Tim Blake Nelson, Louis Gossett Jr., Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Hong Chau, Andrew Howard, Tom Mison, Frances Fisher, Jacob Ming-Trent, Sara Vickers, Dylan Schombing, and James Wolk.
Source: Collider
