Damon Lindelofis a tremendously talented storyteller. That’s evident inLost, it’s evident inThe Leftovers, and it’s definitely evident his most recent work, the brilliant HBO limited seriesWatchmen. But it’s also abundantly evident when you hear him talk, which I recently did for over an hour as part of an exclusive, extended interview in a new installment of ourCollider Connected series. Lindelof loves a good yarn, and throughout our wide-ranging conversation he was colorful, candid, and passionate as we ran through a variety of topics and spoke frankly aboutWatchmen’s approach to race and how it tackles the Tulsa race massacre.
We spoke pretty extensively aboutLost, the groundbreaking series that first put Lindelof on the map and set him on a course to be writing on and for some of the biggest franchises around. Because the “origin story” of the show is so well known, I asked Lindelof what it was like for him and his team to be entering the show’s second season – after getting through Season 1 by the skin of their teeth, they now had proof the show was a hit. Lindelof, eager to talk about an aspect ofLostthat gets touched on infrequently, discussed their approach to answering questions in Season 2, and how adding new writers to the room impacted the stories they were telling in the show’s swell second season.
But I was also curious aboutLost’s endgame. Not whether they “had it all figured out” (which Lindelof reveals they actually kind of did), but how exactly Lindelof and Co. were able to convince ABC to let them end the series. He went in-depth on the difficulty in convincing the network to end something that was a hit, and admitted that ideally the show would have only run three or four seasons – which makes it all the more impressive how good, on the whole, that show is.
We also discussed Lindelof’s jump to working on massive feature films likeStar TrekandPrometheusandTomorrowland, and what he learned from working with folks likeRidley ScottandBrad Bird. Indeed, Lindelof claims he learned he’s better at working in television, and when he touched on the amount of world-building he andJeff Jensendid forTomorrowland, I noted that film could have been interesting as an expanded limited series instead of a two-hour story – a note to which Lindelof agrees. And we talked about the phenomenal (and underseen) three seasons ofThe Leftovers.
But the bulk of our conversation centered aroundWatchmen. Brilliant, ambitious, and absolutely striking. Lindelof had been offered the opportunity to makeWatchmenbefore, but only finally said yes to HBO when he was struck by a unique idea. What ifAlan MooreandDave Gibbons’ source material could be tackled in a way that felt fresh and new, not just from a story perspective but from a thematic perspective? The nugget of that idea was setting this newWatchmenin Tulsa, Oklahoma and steeping the nine episodes in the trauma of the Tulsa race massacre, a real-life historical event that had been hidden away from most history books. In 1921, Tulsa was home to one of the most affluent areas of Black businesses in the country – Black Wall Street it was called. And over the course of two days, it was entirely destroyed and hundreds of Black men, women, and children were murdered by a white mob.
HBO’sWatchmenopens with a re-creation of this event, which provides a jumping off point for the series to tackle themes of systemic racism, inherited trauma, and yes, policing. We discussed all this and more in our interview because Tulsa just so happens to be my hometown. It’s where I was born and raised. And I was never taught about the Tulsa race massacre in school – nor were most of my Oklahoma-born family and friends.
Watchmendidn’t “fix” the Tulsa race massacre, and Lindelof is the first to admit the show was the most collaborative thing he’s ever worked on – he assembled a writers room that was incredibly diverse, and had many difficult conversations as they began to tackle issues relating to policing and systemic racism in the show’s episodes. ButWatchmendid “put Tulsa on blast” so to speak, and spurred many to seek out information on the event on their own. And for that I’m grateful.
This interview is truly wide-ranging and hopefully insightful, and below I’ve listed out everything we discussed, but I do highly recommend at least tuning in to hear what Lindelof has to say aboutWatchmenand race, because this is a TV series that delivers on the superheroics, delivers on telling a great love story, and delivers on building on the existingWatchmenin a unique way. But first and foremost, it’s a TV series that speaks directly to the moment America is living through right now, and that I believe is what makes it a piece of art that will stand the test of time.
Check out the full interview above. To learn more about Greenwood Rising, a museum being built in Tulsa that will talk about Black Wall Street before it was destroyed, (and to donate)click here.
All episodes ofWatchmenare now available on HBO On Demand and HBO Max.
