Zack Snyder’s Watchmen Paved Way for Avengers, Star Says

Watchmen star Patrick Wilson has praised director Zack Snyder for being “ahead of the curve” with his “dark” take on the superhero genre, suggesting it helped to pave the way for the MCU’s Avengers movies.

During an interview with ReelBlend, Wilson admitted 2009’s Watchmen is the only entry in his filmography he has invested time in watching after its release. He said revisiting the DC Comics adaptation made him realise how important it was for movies like The Avengers, even though they are poles apart.

“Watchmen is the only movie of mine that I have watched front to back since a premiere. That movie is awesome,” Wilson said. “I just wanted to look at it as an older guy, as a filmmaker. I knew Zack was ahead of the curve. It’s weird to say that audiences weren’t ready for it. But you need a movie like that. You need movies to go so dark that then Avengers can go so light. I do believe in that.”

I knew Zack was ahead of the curve. It’s weird to say that audiences weren’t ready for it.

The first Avengers movie hit theaters in 2012, three years after Watchmen. Wilson, who starred in the film as Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl II, said it would be “so awesome” to “do that movie now,” given it has been well over a decade since Snyder’s adaptation of Alan Moore’s classic graphic novel arrived on the big screen.

Watchmen was Snyder’s first foray into true superhero cinema (having already made his mark in comics-based filmmaking with 300), and he made no attempt to pull back from the violence, sex, and adult nature of its source material. It’s a divisive film among fans, with some saying the R-rated feature is too faithful to the comic.

HBO brought Watchmen back in 2019 with a limited series by Damon Lindelof. The series received widespread critical acclaim and earned multiple awards, including seven Emmys in 2020. However, Lindelof left his role as showrunner after the first season because he felt the nine episodes represented a complete story.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.