Warning: This article contains spoilers about Sundays episode ofWatchmen,titled A God Walks Into Abar.
Thats not the end of ourWatchmencoverage this week.
Read EWs recap of A God Walks Into Abarhere.
Credit: Mark Hill/HBO
Read our interview with actor Yahya Abdul Mateen IIhere.
The whole putting Doctor Manhattan on screen, and making this choice.
It was super exciting, both simultaneously being truthful to the source and truthful to our story of 2019.
Rodin Eckenroth/FilmMagic
In the episode we have the Doctor Manhattan from the source.
But then once were firmly in the land of our alternate 2019 version, then its slightly different.
The most we see of the original Doctor Manhattan is in the bar with Angela.
What was the thinking behind that filming choice?
For me, that was important for two purposes.
One was in depicting the original Doctor Manhattan, the one from the book.
By not showing his face, it protects those viewers who have that vision and can have it forever.
I think first and foremost its brilliant storytelling, withholding to such an extent that transformation lands so enormously.
So because that line is in the episode, I know that was something you guys were thinking about.
Theres the idea of hiding in plain sight.
It starts from story and theme.
This series is tackling race head-on and so many things around it: Conscious/unconscious bias, conscious/unconscious racism.
So it thematically ties right into all of those things.
Thats why Cal seems so disoriented, its Doctor Manhattan reemerging.
Thats the suit hes been wearing for 10 years, so hes keeping it on.
The blue comes because those are his powers.
The chip removed his powers, not his physical form.
Thats the skin hes wearing.
Its like, why is he naked in the book?
Because he doesnt give a st!
He doesnt care what his form is.
Thats how the character justifies being Cal still.
But thats not where our story is right now.
Hes got bigger fish to fry.
It was really fun to play on that.
It was a really amazing couple days of working with these actors.
His egos been brutalized, and then the only person he could be inferior to walks into the room.
The set-up is so fun, and the two actors did it so beautifully.
I loved bringing in the actors and saying youve been friends for 30 years, and they got it.
They captured the essence of their characters and how they would respond to the other person in the room.
How did you get the walking-on-water effect?
Then with visual effects we removed what you could see of the scaffolding through the water.
It was very concretely planned and designed that way.
Six was always to me a stand-alone episode in terms of those long single takes.
Its interesting that I feel the connection more concretely as a viewer now, I feel the echoes.
The scene that really struck me is in this episode when Angela kills all the Seventh Kavalry guys.
I know that was totally deliberate on Damon and Jeffs part.
Things hit at different parts.
When youre filming it youre focused not just on the story, but preoccupied by how to do it.
I know thats what Damon and the writers are doing.
