{"id":112717,"date":"2019-12-15T12:25:37","date_gmt":"2019-12-15T17:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/damon-lindelof-of-watchmen-on-bringing-the-gay-fetishistic-heroes-of-the-series-to-life\/"},"modified":"2019-12-15T12:25:37","modified_gmt":"2019-12-15T17:25:37","slug":"damon-lindelof-of-watchmen-on-bringing-the-gay-fetishistic-heroes-of-the-series-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/damon-lindelof-of-watchmen-on-bringing-the-gay-fetishistic-heroes-of-the-series-to-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Damon Lindelof of \u2018Watchmen\u2019 on bringing the gay, fetishistic heroes of the series to life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Damon Lindelof of \u2018Watchmen\u2019 on bringing the <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">gay<\/a>, fetishistic heroes of the series to life<\/b><\/p>\n<figure aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-545380\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/Damon-On-set-1-670x453.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"670\" height=\"453\" srcset=\"https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/Damon-On-set-1-670x453.png 670w, https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/Damon-On-set-1-400x270.png 400w, https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/Damon-On-set-1.png 731w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 670px) 100vw, 670px\"><figcaption><em>Lindelof (left) on set with Regina King. Credit: Mark Hill\/HBO<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.queerty.com\/content\/docs\/2019\/12\/On-set-2.tif\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\">As an Emmy-winning producer of <em>Lost<\/em>, creator of the series\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.queerty.com\/justin-theroux-explains-his-flopping-package-on-the-leftovers-20140904\"><em>The Leftovers<\/em><\/a>, and co-writer of <em>Prometheus, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.queerty.com\/leftovers-creator-discusses-need-male-nudity-television-20170606\">Damon Linedlof<\/a> <\/em>has enjoyed wild acclaim and crazy ridicule. Lindelof deleted his Twitter account in 2013 following extreme cyberbullying for his work on <em>The Leftovers<\/em>\u00a0and became one of the first major critics of toxic fandom.<\/p>\n<p>None of this has dissuaded Lindelof from taking risks. His latest endeavor, the HBO series <a href=\"https:\/\/www.queerty.com\/whos-watching-watchmen-20080819\"><em>Watchmen<\/em><\/a>, adapts the legendary graphic novel by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.queerty.com\/comic-book-legend-alan-moores-gender-bending-fashion-beast-finally-published-20120908\">Alan Moore<\/a> &#038; Dave Gibbons, long considered unadaptable. The series follows the costumed vigilante Sister Night (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.queerty.com\/watch-hbo-drops-first-watchmen-trailer-teases-new-kind-queer-superhero-20190722\">Regina King<\/a>) as she investigates a murder linked to white supremacists, an eccentric billionaire scientist and the godlike superbeing Dr. Manhattan.<\/p>\n<p><em>Watchmen <\/em>has earned glowing reviews for its subversive take on the superhero genre, sociopolitical commentary and the inclusion of a storyline involving a <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">gay<\/a>, interracial superhero romance.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Queerty scored some time with Lindelof\u2013a rarity for an LGBTQ publication\u2013to <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=grq0&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">chat<\/a> about the show, its bold storytelling choices, and how he navigates genre writing in the era of toxic fandom. The season finale of\u00a0<em>Watchmen<\/em> airs on HBO December 15.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The show has been a resounding success. How are you feeling about it all?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Well I\u2019m deeply appreciative of what you said. I\u2019m simultaneously immensely proud of all the hard work that everyone did to make this show. It was not easy to do. The way that I\u2019m wired\u2014and this is not to take anything away from anyone else liking or appreciating the show\u2014the way I\u2019m wired is that it\u2019s very hard for me to grasp the idea that I made it. I did it. You know that baby meme where the baby is clenching his fist like <i>nailed it<\/i>? I look at people who experience that and think <i><a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">man<\/a>, I wish I could get some of that<\/i>. So it\u2019s not that I feel like it\u2019s going to be lost, but I always feel like when something\u2019s going very well, and maybe this is my Jewish heritage, but I feel like at any given moment the rug is going to be pulled out from under me. The higher I go, the greater distance to fall. So there\u2019s a fair amount of anxiety while I\u2019m trying to really appreciate the show and reaction to the show.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sure.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Any writer, or anyone in the arts of any kind, the sweet spot is where you are trying get something out of you that makes you feel seen. Considering <i>Watchmen<\/i> wasn\u2019t mine, I wanted the show to feel like <i>Watchmen<\/i> but I also knew, in order to feel like <i>Watchmen<\/i>, it needed something original inside it. It\u2019s deeply personal to me. Right now I feel understood. That\u2019s a rare and wonderful thing in my parabola.<\/p>\n<figure aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-545384\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/sister-night.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"624\" height=\"393\" srcset=\"https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/sister-night.png 624w, https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/sister-night-400x252.png 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 624px) 100vw, 624px\"><figcaption><em>Regina King as Sister Night<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Great to hear. And for the record, I\u2019m a total Gentile, and I\u2019m constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop too. So maybe it\u2019s a writer thing.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><i>[Laughter]<\/i><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>That\u2019s a relief. My wife is a Catholic, and she voices it as \u201cI\u2019ve done something to deserve something horrible.\u201d That\u2019s Catholic guilt as opposed to Jewish guilt, which is a general sense of misery.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I\u2019ll have to have you back to do a whole interview on that mentality. There\u2019s a whole conversation there.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019d never stop talking.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><strong>This sequel series introduces the element of racism, which is not at all prominent in the original novel. Maybe that\u2019s a hint that both Alan Moore &#038; Dave Gibbons [author and artist of the novel] are both British. At exactly what point did you decide that the show would focus on that?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Great question. I think that my feeling is that the first instinct was that <i>Watchmen <\/i>was written in the mid-80s. One of the things that made it resonate was that, unlike a lot of superhero comic books that are set in an alternate world, <i>Watchmen <\/i>was set in New York. Richard Nixon was still president. So it was dealing with a political reality that was just a <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/couples\/?mp_code=akftr\">couple<\/a> degrees off of our own, versus Lex Luthor and the Joker are up to no good. It feels <i>real<\/i>. What the original <i>Watchmen<\/i> was dealing with was the United States and the Soviet Union on the verge of a nuclear war. When I read <i>Watchmen <\/i>in the mid-80s, <i>The Day After<\/i> [a notorious TV movie about the aftermath of a Soviet-American nuclear exchange] had just run.<\/p>\n<p><strong>And nuclear war seemed like a very real possibility.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Yes. And superheroes can\u2019t beat nuclear war. So it made all the characters in <i>Watchmen<\/i> a little more flawed and pathetic because the \u201cbig bad\u201d was undefeatable. So I asked myself, if we\u2019re going to set a story in 2019 and it\u2019s 30 years after the original <i>Watchmen<\/i>, I\u2019m no longer scared of being nuked by the Russians. So what is the pervasive cultural anxiety in America right now? Everywhere I look, everything I read, is about race. Even though I move through the world as a white <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">man<\/a>, it was increasingly impossible to not see that afforded me a tremendous benefit.<\/p>\n<figure aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-545383\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/screen-shot-2019-07-30-at-9-56-07-am-670x426.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"670\" height=\"426\" srcset=\"https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/screen-shot-2019-07-30-at-9-56-07-am-670x426.png 670w, https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/screen-shot-2019-07-30-at-9-56-07-am-400x255.png 400w, https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/screen-shot-2019-07-30-at-9-56-07-am-105x68.png 105w, https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/screen-shot-2019-07-30-at-9-56-07-am.png 1092w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 670px) 100vw, 670px\"><figcaption><em>Jean Smart as FBI agent Laurie Blake<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Absolutely.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I got a much bigger piece of the American Dream cake than other people. So I looked at the original text and realized there is an omission, in that there are no people of color with the exception of Rorschach\u2019s therapist. So it seemed like an interesting idea to write about: where are all the black people in the superhero genre? [I wanted] to make that the question. Right on the heels of that was the revelation: this is not my story to tell. How dare I? So the answer became to collaborate with people of color, not as people under me, but as true collaborators. I know <i>Watchmen<\/i> like the back of my hand, but as it pertains to this aspect of it, I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m talking about. I like to tell stories when I\u2019m in over my head.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><strong>Yes.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That immediately threw me into the deep end. I knew if we got it wrong, it would be harmful. Not that it would just be sh*tty, it could actually <i>hurt<\/i> people. Once I knew that was the responsibility before us, and decided to do it anyway, we were in it. That was the thinking.<\/p>\n<p><strong>That awesome. That is one of the reasons people are so enthralled with it. It is provocative, and you\u2019re bringing attention to events like the Tulsa Massacre which most people don\u2019t even know about. And that\u2019s scary.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I didn\u2019t until five years ago.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It\u2019s a frightening element of our history that we don\u2019t talk about. Now, as a die-hard lover of the original novel, and as a queer person, a <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">gay<\/a> <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">man<\/a>, I was very interested to see how the sexuality of the queer characters would be handled.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Right.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In the book,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.queerty.com\/watchmens-hot-gay-romances-you-never-knew-about-20090407\"> Adrian Veidt, Hooded Justice, Captain Metropolis and possibly Rorschach are all gay<\/a>. The element of fetishism is also explored with Nite Owl and Silk Spectre. The sexual awareness of the book is something key and groundbreaking for the time. Was it always a given that you were going to include an exploration of the relationship between Hooded Justice and Captain Metropolis?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Absolutely. The moment we decided that the big idea of this season would be that Hooded Justice would be a <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">man<\/a> of color, a black <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">man<\/a> who was the first superhero. Not just <i>a<\/i> superhero, but the first, the <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">guy<\/a> who came up with the idea. There was a meta-theme of appropriation. Part of America is built on stealing sh*t from people of color.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Unfortunately yes.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s from the land we <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=grq0&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">live<\/a> on taken from Native Americans to so much of pop culture being taken from African Americans. So to apply the same thinking to superheroing, the challenge became\u2014and as a fan of the original <i>Watchmen, <\/i>you know\u2014in the ancillary materials, it is very clear that Hooded Justice and Captain Metropolis were in a relationship.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Absolutely.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of the tricky things is that their relationship is described to us by someone who is homophobic, Hollis Mason [the costumed avenger Nite Owl I]. He\u2019s not woke.<\/p>\n<figure aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-545378\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/Watchmen-HBO-Captain-Metropolis-and-Hooded-Justice.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"618\" height=\"412\" srcset=\"https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/Watchmen-HBO-Captain-Metropolis-and-Hooded-Justice.jpg 618w, https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/Watchmen-HBO-Captain-Metropolis-and-Hooded-Justice-400x267.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px\"><figcaption><em>Captain Metropolis (Jake McDorman) &#038; Hooded Justice (Jovan Adepo)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>To say the least.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So we had to ask ourselves\u2014nobody is describing the relationship from the inside. Someone from the 1940s and 50s describing two <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">men<\/a> in a relationship together is going to use very loaded language like \u201cdeviancy.\u201d There are also implications that maybe Hooded Justice was into rough stuff, or even pedophilia, which were, as you know, code phrases for people who didn\u2019t understand what it meant to be <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">gay<\/a>. More importantly, if you were a <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">man<\/a>, let alone a <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">man<\/a> of color in the 1930s or 1940s, you don\u2019t even have the word \u201cqueer\u201d or \u201c<a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/www.flirt4free.com\/live\/girls\/couples\/?mp_code=akftr\">bisexual<\/a>\u201d or \u201c<a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">gay<\/a>\u201d to describe your attraction to other <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">men<\/a>. So the idea that Will [Reeves, the true identity of Hooded Justice in the TV series] was very confused by all this, and how exciting it would be for him for a prominent white <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">guy<\/a> in a position power to not only invite him to join his superhero team but is clearly attracted to him sexually\u2026that\u2019s the story that wasn\u2019t told in the original <i>Watchmen<\/i>. And there\u2019s something dark in that story, particularly because Captain Metropolis is telling him \u201cYou need to hide your race\u201d and is clearly closeted himself. How can we dramatize all of that in four scenes? There\u2019s such a heavy lift in that episode. How can we do it with some degree of responsibility? Those are the things we were striving for.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I love that you include that, and queer people seem to love the episode. I have to say though, I was disturbed by the way the relationship was portrayed. I wasn\u2019t bothered by any of the changes you make to the character of Hooded Justice. And I think I\u2019m in the minority on this issue, but it really bothered me to see the relationship go from one that is pure and loving in the original novel to a coercive one borne out of fetishization.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yeah.<\/p>\n<p><strong>That said, I don\u2019t think the way you portray the Hooded Justice\/Captain Metropolis relationship in the show is outside the bounds of reality. Racism does exist in the queer world, as does fetishization of race. Did you have reservations about portraying their relationship as an abusive or exploitative one?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I first want to say your criticism is very fair. Like all things, as it relates to the original text, we had to ask if Hooded Justice was a <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">man<\/a> of color, what does it mean for Captain Metropolis extrapolated through that? That said, the initial answer to your question is we <i>really<\/i> wrestled with all of the above. How elastic is the original test? There\u2019s a thing called \u201cretconning,\u201d retroactive continuity\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>I know it well.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You know all about it. We had to admit that\u2019s what we were doing. This certainly wasn\u2019t Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons\u2019 original intent. The other thing we had to determine is that the relationship between Metropolis and Hooded Justice is always being described by others [in the novel]. We never actually hear from Captain Metropolis as to how he felt about the relationship.<\/p>\n<p><strong>That is true, yes.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So the arc we wanted for them was\u2014I think \u201cfetishize\u201d is exactly right. I think Metropolis fetishized the relationship with Hooded Justice at the time it was happening. But then later in life, in order to reconnect with what you just said about the original text, it was something he came to regret or had real perspective on. In hindsight, he realized he loved this <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">man<\/a>. The way we pay this off is that Will Reeves is now living in Nelson Gardner\u2019s mansion. After Nelson\u2019s death, he willed his entire estate to this <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">man<\/a> he feels he wronged.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.queerty.com\/watch-hbo-drops-first-watchmen-trailer-teases-new-kind-queer-superhero-20190722\">WATCH: HBO drops the first \u2018Watchmen\u2019 trailer, and teases a new kind of queer superhero<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>And I did catch that detail. I was happy to hear it. And as I say, this is my personal reaction as a queer writer, and I think I\u2019m in the minority in that.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No, no, it\u2019s fair. I\u2019ll also say, obviously it\u2019s on-screen that counts, but we have this thing called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hbo.com\/peteypedia\">Peteypedia<\/a>,\u201d which like the ancillary materials did in the original <i>Watchmen<\/i>, has all these documents and memos that the FBI has found, including Nelson Gardner\u2019s last will &#038; testament in which he bequeaths his entire estate to Will Reeves. It speaks to some of the things you and I are talking about right now. And it is canon.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I didn\u2019t know that. There goes my afternoon\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oh yeah, it\u2019s a deep dive. But I think you\u2019ll find there is some interesting stuff there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>No doubt. Now one thing that really impresses me about your writing in this show, and in general, is the way you write a mystery <i>about<\/i> a mystery. For example in <i>Watchmen, <\/i>it is clear there is a mystery unfolding, but it\u2019s a mystery what that mystery even is.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>[Long Pause]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m just sitting with your question for a second. I do a lot of interviews, and I\u2019ve been doing this job for longer than I care to admit. I\u2019ve heard most iterations of most questions in one form or another before. But this is the first time that anyone has ever asked me that, and certainly the first time anyone so articulately verbalized the idea that the true mystery is <i>what\u2019s the mystery?<\/i><\/p>\n<figure aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-545382\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/screen-shot-2019-07-21-at-9-01-22-am-670x378.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"670\" height=\"378\" srcset=\"https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/screen-shot-2019-07-21-at-9-01-22-am-670x378.png 670w, https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/screen-shot-2019-07-21-at-9-01-22-am-400x226.png 400w, https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/screen-shot-2019-07-21-at-9-01-22-am.png 1092w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 670px) 100vw, 670px\"><figcaption><em>Dr. Manhattan<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Yeah?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As you were asking the question, I was thinking to back when <i>Lost<\/i> was on. People would walk up to me and ask \u201cWhat\u2019s the island? What <i>is<\/i> it?\u201d And I wouldn\u2019t even know how to answer that question, but I think what they were actually asking me was \u201cWhat is the mystery?\u201d I saw people know how to ask \u201cWhere do the polar bears come from?\u201d Or on <i>The Leftovers,<\/i> \u201cWhere did those people disappear to?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Yes.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>What you\u2019re fundamentally scratching at\u2014I\u2019m not a Catholic, but my wife was a practicing Catholic when we met. We went to church and they were talking about \u201cthe mystery.\u201d They literally used the word \u201cmystery.\u201d I asked her afterward \u201cHoney, what\u2019s The Mystery?\u201d And she said it was the Holy Trinity and connective threads therein. And I was like, <i>but there is no mystery<\/i>. Jesus died for your sins, you know why, he came back to life\u2026 And she was like <i>we know the answer to the mystery, but we don\u2019t know The Mystery<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Yeah.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And that conversation is really unpacking what you\u2019re saying. There is fundamental anxiety programmed into our DNA as humans. That anxiety is <i>what the f*ck are we supposed to do?<\/i> What do we do with this life? Why are we here? What\u2019s the purpose behind it all? I am deeply interested in exploring that anxiety. In order to explore that, I have to put it in a Trojan Horse of story. That is the brass ring I\u2019m reaching for constantly, whether it\u2019s obvious or subtextual.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sure.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So the answer to your question is I can\u2019t answer the mystery of why I\u2019m so driven by mystery other than the fact that I find it really relatable. I\u2019m fascinated by people that are so confident that they\u2019ve figured it all out that they\u2019ve solved The Mystery. But then when you say to them, \u201cHow can you solve The Mystery for me?\u201d It\u2019s something they can\u2019t verbalize. It\u2019s almost a feeling. That gets to the heart of the other thing that drives me creatively, which is how do you make something emotional versus didactic? I was never good with philosophy, but I know when I\u2019m feeling something. So how can I use the medium of the story to connect with them based on what I\u2019m feeling?<\/p>\n<p><strong>So in terms of mechanics then, how do you go about layering that into a plot?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I guess the approach is always through the lens of character first. You look at a person and essentially say what does this person want, do they know what they want, and if they can\u2019t answer the question of what they want because if they did, they would go get it, then as a storyteller, I feel like most humans are missing something. What is that thing they need in order to be whole? If I can identify it, then I can understand how to write that.<\/p>\n<figure aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-504978\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/07\/watchmen-trailer-1557395688-670x377.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"670\" height=\"377\" srcset=\"https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/07\/watchmen-trailer-1557395688-670x377.jpg 670w, https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/07\/watchmen-trailer-1557395688-400x225.jpg 400w, https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/07\/watchmen-trailer-1557395688.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 670px) 100vw, 670px\"><figcaption><em>Looking Glass (played by Tim Blake Nelson)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Marvelous<\/strong>. <strong>The reaction to the show has been overwhelmingly positive. But maybe this would be a good point to ask about toxic fandom, which has just gotten so far out of control. I remember the stir when you deleted your Twitter account in 2013.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A little bit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Things, in short, have not gotten better, and as a lifelong geek myself, I\u2019m constantly horrified. As a member of the media I\u2019ve been targeted as well. Where does this come from? Where does this entitlement come from? How do we combat it?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know the answer to the second part of the question, how we combat it. If I knew the answer, I think I\u2019d be able to answer why we\u2019re in a divided culture right now. Why is vitriol our default position? We\u2019ve lost the ability to have deeper, more probing conversations to understand each other better. Social media is a big part of the problem.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For sure.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Just because I deleted my Twitter account doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t have Instagram or that I am reliant on my phone as a way of communicating. Even for those of us who have ever been in love, even when we\u2019re texting the people we love most, sometimes our texts are misinterpreted as hostile.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Yes.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s someone that you know and trust. Now let\u2019s extrapolate that same level of communication from strangers. The default position is defensiveness. The antidote to defensiveness is offensiveness, and that\u2019s the culture we now find ourselves in. But I think the root of the toxic fanbase is that we are all protecting this thing that we love. So if you\u2019re a fan of a sports team, or a fan of Magneto, ultimately the part of it is that you want to be able to make fun of it. But when you make fun of it, you do it with love. But it doesn\u2019t feel like love when you say \u201cThat was a sh*tty episode.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Interesting.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the source of it. I find the people who really didn\u2019t like an episode of <i>Watchmen <\/i>don\u2019t feel a need to go on Twitter and tell the world about it if they didn\u2019t love it. The toxicity that you and I are really talking about right now\u2014the root of it is <i>I love this thing and I feel a need to protect it<\/i>. Or, <i>someone doesn\u2019t love it as much as I do<\/i>. Or [someone is] exploiting it and I need to protect it. When I feel toxic in my fandom, when I feel that feeling inside me, I take a deep breath and remember it\u2019s me feeling protective, but this person who may have gone down a different road than I would have loves it too.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Right<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>We can agree to disagree on the approach. But how can I be mad at someone for loving it as much as I do?<\/p>\n<p><strong>I love that you use the term \u201cexploit\u201d there. I feel like that\u2019s really key to part of this. We <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=grq0&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">live<\/a> in a time of sequels, prequels, reboots, revivals, and reduxes that cancel out other sequels and reboots. There\u2019s something from a business standpoint that is exploitative about that. It makes me wonder if that\u2019s just a natural reaction of \u201cdon\u2019t take away what I love.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Right.<\/p>\n<figure aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-541056\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/10\/watchmen-hbo-series-670x377.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"670\" height=\"377\" srcset=\"https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/10\/watchmen-hbo-series-670x377.jpg 670w, https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/10\/watchmen-hbo-series-400x225.jpg 400w, https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/10\/watchmen-hbo-series.jpg 825w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 670px) 100vw, 670px\"><figcaption><em>Watchmen<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Do you think it\u2019s also possible that the audience has now been conditioned to expect a kind of fan service? I know you\u2019re close with JJ Abrams, so I hate to use the example of <i>The Force Awakens<\/i>, but it\u2019s a clear one. Watching that movie drove me crazy as a fan because it seemed preoccupied with nostalgia and stoking the fan ego. It\u2019s like it was trying to say \u201cAren\u2019t you smart for getting all these in-jokes.\u201d So, without picking on Mr. Abrams or anyone else, do you think that kind of pandering results in toxic fandom?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s such a good question. The short answer is I don\u2019t know. At a certain point, it\u2019s like the word \u201cbinge.\u201d Up until a decade ago, it was a bad word. It was synonymous with eating too many potato chips, like <i>I ate the entire bag and now feel guilty and physically ill<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p><i>[Laughter]<\/i><\/p>\n<p><strong>Right.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Then when it comes to consuming episodes of a TV show, it\u2019s something we\u2019re all proud of. \u201cI watched an entire season of <i>Stranger Things<\/i> in 10 hours!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>True.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The same is true of fan service. It sounds like a good thing. You want to acknowledge the insiders. If you\u2019re making a <i>Star Wars<\/i> movie, and someone has a 30-year-old romance with <i>Star Wars<\/i>, there should be stuff in the movie that resonates more with them than someone who walks in off the street. You want to acknowledge someone\u2019s obsession. Of course, this stuff is also now being made by fans. Whether or not you have quibbles with JJ\u2019s <i>Star Wars<\/i> or Rian Johnson\u2019s <i>Star Wars<\/i>, no one can say those two <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">guys<\/a> aren\u2019t fans.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Absolutely right.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Then <a href=\"https:\/\/www.queerty.com\/star-wars-gets-its-first-lgbt-character-but-yoda-still-sets-off-our-gaydar-20150309\">baby Yoda<\/a> comes along in <i>The Mandalorian<\/i>, and everyone loses their minds. But it\u2019s fan service. It\u2019s Yoda, a character we adore in baby form. That\u2019s a home run across the board. Anyone who doesn\u2019t like baby Yoda, I don\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n<p><i>[Laughter]<\/i><\/p>\n<p>So, it\u2019s interesting. I agree with you. There is a line you can cross where it suddenly feels like you\u2019re pandering, that it\u2019s no longer authentic, that they\u2019re using nostalgia to trick you. Where that line is, is subjective. It\u2019s different places for different people. When we were talking about <i>Watchmen<\/i>, we were hyper-aware of where that line was for us.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Yes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Different writers in the writer\u2019s room, their minds were in different places. So as long as we felt like we weren\u2019t crossing over each other\u2019s line, we thought maybe the finished product would be on the right side of it when the show airs. But you don\u2019t know until you start down that path.<\/p>\n<figure aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-545385\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/hooded-justice-670x377.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"670\" height=\"377\" srcset=\"https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/hooded-justice-670x377.jpg 670w, https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/hooded-justice-400x225.jpg 400w, https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/hooded-justice.jpg 1296w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 670px) 100vw, 670px\"><figcaption><em>Hooded Justice<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Along those lines, one element I really love in the show is the way it echos the original novel without repeating it. So, for example, like the novel, you have a murder mystery with a costumed hero, but it\u2019s under very different circumstances, and with a very different outcome. How do you strike a balance?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Very carefully. It was a very delicate process. You want to have the energy of the bull in a china shop because that\u2019s what the original <i>Watchmen<\/i> has. At the same time, you\u2019re like, <i>get that energy but don\u2019t break anything<\/i>. I think for us, we knew we\u2019d break stuff but then pick it up and meticulously Crazy Glue it back together and put it back on the shelf. We can\u2019t leave the china shop in tatters because we love it so much. The original <i>Watchmen<\/i>, and I think you would agree as a fan, did this amazing thing where it simultaneously revered the Golden Age of superheroes, and at the same time, it was trolling it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Yes!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And so we had to do that with the original. We had to revere the original <i>Watchmen<\/i> but also troll it. But troll it in such a way where we\u2019re sort of busting <i>Watchmen\u2019<\/i>s chops versus being mean to it. That\u2019s where we come back to \u201cvery carefully.\u201d If it ever felt like we weren\u2019t in complete and total love with the source material, the idea went onto the junk pile. We adore this thing, but that adoration would have limited us from making something new. When you\u2019re adapting something, you have to honor why it\u2019s worthy of adaptation, but at the same time, \u201cadaptation\u201d means what it means: change. Adaptation means change, not do the same thing. So how much to change, how to change, when to change\u2026that was the experiment every single day. Sometimes we got it right, most times we got it wrong. But we had each other\u2019s backs and built enough trust to say to one another \u201cWe have to do better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Good to know someone still tries.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>The season finale of\u00a0Watchmen airs on HBO December 15. The series is available to stream on HBO Go.<\/em><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/queerty2?a=vROEEiA5Vnc:EGzjN2YaIkQ:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/queerty2?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/queerty2?a=vROEEiA5Vnc:EGzjN2YaIkQ:dnMXMwOfBR0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/queerty2?d=dnMXMwOfBR0\" border=\"0\"><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.queerty.com\/damon-lindelof-watchmen-bringing-gay-fetishistic-heroes-series-life-20191215?utm_source=feedburner&#038;utm_medium=feed&#038;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29\" class=\"autohyperlink\">www.queerty.com\/damon-lindelof-watchmen-bringing-gay-fetishistic-heroes-series-life-20191215?utm_source=feedburner&#038;utm_medium=feed&#038;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Damon Lindelof of \u2018Watchmen\u2019 on bringing the <a title=\"\" class=\"aalmanual\" target=\"_blank\"   href=\"https:\/\/chaturbate.com\/in\/?tour=R2Xc&#38;campaign=hl4zp&#38;track=gfcsb\">gay<\/a>, fetishistic heroes of the series to life Lindelof (left) on set with Regina King. Credit: Mark Hill\/HBO As an Emmy-winning producer of Lost, creator of the series\u00a0The Leftovers, and co-writer of Prometheus, Damon Linedlof has enjoyed wild acclaim and crazy ridicule. Lindelof deleted his Twitter account in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/damon-lindelof-of-watchmen-on-bringing-the-gay-fetishistic-heroes-of-the-series-to-life\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Damon Lindelof of \u2018Watchmen\u2019 on bringing the gay, fetishistic heroes of the series to life<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Damon Lindelof of \u2018Watchmen\u2019 on bringing the gay, fetishistic heroes of the series to life - GAYFRIENDSCHAT.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/damon-lindelof-of-watchmen-on-bringing-the-gay-fetishistic-heroes-of-the-series-to-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Damon Lindelof of \u2018Watchmen\u2019 on bringing the gay, fetishistic heroes of the series to life - GAYFRIENDSCHAT.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Damon Lindelof of \u2018Watchmen\u2019 on bringing the gay, fetishistic heroes of the series to life Lindelof (left) on set with Regina King. Credit: Mark Hill\/HBO As an Emmy-winning producer of Lost, creator of the series\u00a0The Leftovers, and co-writer of Prometheus, Damon Linedlof has enjoyed wild acclaim and crazy ridicule. Lindelof deleted his Twitter account in &hellip; Continue reading Damon Lindelof of \u2018Watchmen\u2019 on bringing the gay, fetishistic heroes of the series to life &rarr;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/damon-lindelof-of-watchmen-on-bringing-the-gay-fetishistic-heroes-of-the-series-to-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GAYFRIENDSCHAT.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-12-15T17:25:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/Damon-On-set-1-670x453.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"GayFriendschat.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@gayfriendschat\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@gayfriendschat\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"GayFriendschat.com\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"21 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/damon-lindelof-of-watchmen-on-bringing-the-gay-fetishistic-heroes-of-the-series-to-life\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/damon-lindelof-of-watchmen-on-bringing-the-gay-fetishistic-heroes-of-the-series-to-life\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"GayFriendschat.com\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/#\/schema\/person\/181913201d50f65b9bba7437f822a17f\"},\"headline\":\"Damon Lindelof of \u2018Watchmen\u2019 on bringing the gay, fetishistic heroes of the series to life\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-12-15T17:25:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/damon-lindelof-of-watchmen-on-bringing-the-gay-fetishistic-heroes-of-the-series-to-life\/\"},\"wordCount\":4318,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/damon-lindelof-of-watchmen-on-bringing-the-gay-fetishistic-heroes-of-the-series-to-life\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/2019\/12\/Damon-On-set-1-670x453.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"NEWS\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/damon-lindelof-of-watchmen-on-bringing-the-gay-fetishistic-heroes-of-the-series-to-life\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/damon-lindelof-of-watchmen-on-bringing-the-gay-fetishistic-heroes-of-the-series-to-life\/\",\"name\":\"Damon Lindelof of \u2018Watchmen\u2019 on bringing the gay, fetishistic heroes of the series to life - 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Credit: Mark Hill\/HBO As an Emmy-winning producer of Lost, creator of the series\u00a0The Leftovers, and co-writer of Prometheus, Damon Linedlof has enjoyed wild acclaim and crazy ridicule. 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