Regina King plays an cop-turned-masked hero trying to take down a ruthless militia in the new trailer for HBO’s upcoming adaptation of the famed graphic novel, Watchmen, set to premiere October 20th.
The new trailer opens with King’s character, Angela Abar, receiving a not-so-subtle critique from Laurie Blake (Jean Smart), an FBI agent, who may be an older version of original Watchmen hero Silk Spectre, real name Laurie Juspeczyk. Blake tells Abar that people who wear masks are driven by trauma and they use the mask to help hide their pain. When Angela shoots back, “I wear the mask to protect myself,” Blake cooly replies, “Right, from the pain.”
The rest of the clip finds Abar and her fellow masked avengers, including Looking Glass (played by Tim Blake Nelson), trying to take down a militia group known as the “Cavalry,” who have modeled themselves after Rorschach, the antihero of the original graphic novel. Though as one character tells Abar, the Cavalry may just be one part of a “vast and insidious conspiracy.”
Damon Lindelof (Lost, The Leftovers) helmed the new Watchmen series, which also stars Jeremy Irons, Don Johnson, Louis Gossett, Jr. and more. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross composed the score for the series.
