Release Date, Story, Trailer & Everything We Know

The Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins graphic novel Watchmen received a new adaptation from DC animation, with Watchmen: Chapter 1 released in August 2024, and Watchmen: Chapter 2 currently in development. Following the 2009 Zack Snyder film and an HBO series, it has become evident that Watchmen is not nearly as unfilmable or unadaptable as many used to believe. Despite the mostly warm reception for the Snyder film, DC decided to try their hand at another adaptation, but animated this time around.

With an eye for cultural and historical comment, Watchmen became an enormous hit when it was published between 1986 and 1987. Coming from an era where comic books were seen as a lesser art form, Watchmen helped to elevate the medium and has been listed on many of the best novel lists ever since. It became the first graphic novel to win a Hugo Award and has remained highly influential. The two-part DC animated movie is the third major adaptation of Watchmen.

Watchmen: Chapter 1 Released In August 2024

Watchmen: Chapter 1 was released digitally on August 13, 2024, and two weeks later on Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD on August 27, 2024. It received strong reviews, accumulating a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 7/10 average on IMDB. Compared to the live-action adaptation by Zack Snyder, critics viewed it more favorably, as Snyder’s movie sits at 65%, but viewers gave it an average of 7.6/10 on IMDB.

Watchmen
(2009) has three different versions; a theatrical cut that runs 162 minutes, a director’s cut that adds 24 more minutes to the film, and finally, an ultimate cut that includes the animated Black Freighter segments throughout the film, which runs 215 minutes.

Watchmen: Chapter 1 was quite faithful to the iconic graphic novel, and adapts the first half of the story. It being an essential beat-for-beat adaptation is also its biggest detriment, treading virtually the same ground the 2009 film did. With Watchmen: Chapter 2 on the horizon, it will be interesting to see if it remains faithful to the graphic novel, or does something different like Zack Snyder did with his Watchmen ending.

Watchmen Chapter 1 & 2 Latest News

Now that Watchmen: Chapter 1 has been released, fans are patiently waiting for any news about Watchmen: Chapter 2 to come out. Aside from the initial announcement of the new two-part adaptation, there has been surprisingly little news since, except for the teaser trailer in June and the full trailer in July. After the credits of Watchmen: Chapter 1, a short preview of the second chapter was played, saying it will be coming in 2025.

Watchmen Chapter 2 Is Delayed To 2025

Originally, the plan was for Watchmen: Chapter 1 to release in August 2024, and Watchmen: Chapter 2 to release towards the end of the same year. While the first film did hit its release date, the second film was unfortunately delayed to 2025. The reasons for the delay are unknown, but most likely the film just needed more time to be completed given the quality of its animation. There is no definitive date for the film to release, but hopefully, it will come out sometime in the first half of 2025.

Watchmen Chapter 1 & 2 Cast

IGN released the casting details of the upcoming Watchmen films on July 10, 2024. Matthew Rhys, star of The Americans and Perry Mason, lends his voice to the Dan Dreiberg iteration of Nite Owl, or Nite Owl II. Played by Patrick Wilson in the Zack Snyder film, Dreiberg comes out of retirement after discovering that The Comedian has been killed. This central role is one of the most important in the movie.

One of the most successful genre stars of the past decades, Katee Sackhoff voices Laurie Juspeczyk, also known as the second Silk Spectre. Sackhoff has enjoyed a career of excellent roles but is perhaps best known for her turn as Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica. More recently, she has had a recurring role in The Mandalorian. Another important figure, Juspeczyk, is a legacy hero who has taken up the mantle of Silk Spectre from her mother. She was previously played by Malin Ackerman in the 2009 film.

Bosch star Titus Welliver voices the character of Rorschach. Rorschach is the most popular Watchmen character, characterized as a violent vigilante with a selective moral code. Played in the 2009 film by Jackie Earle Haley, the character’s vicious, gravelly voice and unsettling mask helped to cement the antihero in the pop culture canon. Welliver appears to be playing the character similarly to Haley based on the samples of his voice from the trailer.

Additional stars from various mediums have been added to the Watchmen cast. Troy Baker, best known for voicing Joel in The Last of Us video games, and Yuri Lowenthal from Insomniac’s Spider-Man voice Ozymandias and Wally Weaver respectively. Rick D. Wasserman stepped into the role of the Comedian, one of the original members of the team.

How Watchmen Chapter 1 Sets Up Chapter 2

Watchmen draws from Alan Moore’s graphic novel faithfully for the screen, with animation directly pulling from Dave Gibons’ designs. The official synopsis released by Warner Bros. reads: “In an alternate world history set in 1985, the murder of a government-sponsored superhero draws his outlawed colleagues out of retirement and into a mystery that threatens to upend their personal lives and the world itself.” Contending with superhero mythology and storytelling, the Watchmen story is complex and detailed.

With Watchmen: Chapter 1 being such a faithful adaptation of its source material, it is reasonable to assume Watchmen: Chapter 2 will do the same thing. Being only one-half of a two-part adaptation, Watchmen: Chapter 1 ended on a cliffhanger, with Rorschach being framed for the murder of Edgar Jacobi, who was once known as the criminal Moloch. Watchmen: Chapter 2 will explore the aftermath of that moment while unraveling the mystery behind who is killing these characters, leading to a shocking conclusion.

Watchmen Chapter 1 & 2 Trailer

Nearly a year after it was first announced, the original teaser trailer for Watchmen was released in June 2024. The trailer showed footage from the films and gave the first glimpse at the animation style used for the adaptation. Inside this trailer came the first announcement that the story would be broken into two parts.

A red-band trailer specifically for Watchmen: Chapter 1, was released on July 10, 2024, and gave a much better look at the then-upcoming film. The Watchmen: Chapter 1 trailer showed off the voice cast and looks at several characters, especially the Comedian and Rorschach. There has been no trailer for Watchmen: Chapter 2, but it should eventually come closer to the film’s release date, when the new two-part adaptation of Watchmen is concluded.

Upcoming DC Movie Releases

Source: IGN