Watchmen 2

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February 3, 2010 - First there was the story that DC Comics Publisher and President Paul Levitz had personally prevented any Watchmen 2 projects, because, despite their differences, he believed that as this would be against Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ wishes, it would cause very bad feeling in the creative community and would be a creatively bankrupt move.

Moore fell out massively with DC Comics, and Paul Levitz specifically, not only choosing not to work with them any further, but scuppering spinoff projects, removing his name from any movie credits and any money due to him from said movies, and taking his one final project The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, from Wildstorm, a publisher DC had purchased.

When Paul Levitz left his position as President and publisher of DC Comics it left the story of the Watchmen alone, vulnerable, and ready to be exploited by anyone. That anyone it seems is Dan DiDio, SVP-Executive Editor of DC. According to BleedingCool, DiDio has made it his mission to realize not only a sequel series but also several prequels. He is determined to impress new bosses by building on DC’s biggest selling comic book of all time with multiple prequel comic miniseries and spinoff ongoing projects:

I understand that both Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons have to be offered first refusal before any of these titles could be published. But if they don’t want to work on them themselves (and Alan Moore is never going to agree), DiDio has been sounding out people who might be willing to take on the task. While some creators are reticent, the argument goes if there are a number of Watchmen spinoff projects, any blame or shame can be spread on many shoulders. The sales are expected to be massive, whatever the hardcore fanboy reaction and such expected sales benefits will be shared amongst the creative teams.

Levitz stayed loyal to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, saying that he knew they would be against anything Watchmen 2. Now with Levitz out of the picture and Moore disassociating himself completely from his own work, this leaves Dido free to do what he wants. These events were said to have been a long time coming. The characters of the Watchmen were going to make their way into the universe of, 52. Instead, Earth 4 was inspired by elements of Watchmen.

And of course, in those initial movie contracts with Fox, there was a clause that included sequels to a Watchmen movie. Sadly, for the cast of the first film, they all had sequel clauses in their contracts so, no matter how much an embarrassment it might be considered, they’d find it very hard, or expensive, to get out of taking the job on.

quote Star of Spurs

When I first saw the title I was like 'OH MY GOD A SEQUEL TO ONE OF THE BEST FILMS OF LAST YEAR YEAH!'.

Then I remembered that Watchmen ended with half of the *bleep*ing cast dead or in another universe, meaning that there is no NEED for a sequel.

Seriously? Nite Owl and Silk Spectre 2's baby goes around fighting crime? There is literally no need for a sequel. A prequel is also unneccesary, because if it doesn't have Alan Moore's great writing and Gibbon's snappy artwork, it isn't worth the time.

How about doing the only other great Alan Moore book not to get a film yet and finally make The Killing Joke? I would love you for life.