Patrick Wilson, the actor who played Nite Owl in Watchmen, recently went down memory lane, recalling his role in Zack Snyder’s initial superhero movies. In the beginning, this whole genre of superhero movies was new and has only grown significantly over the past few years.
The actor shared in an interview that he was a huge fan of working on Watchmen and that this is the only project he has watched after it premiered. Wilson said, “I wanted to look at it as an older guy. As a filmmaker.”
In the interview with Cinema Blend, he also mentioned that the movie Watchmen introduced the audience to superhero movies, especially the dark and gritty ones, which helped set the stage for lighter movies such as Marvel's The Avengers. You can read his full response below:
“I knew Zack [Snyder] was ahead of the curve [...] It’s weird to say that audiences weren’t ready for it, but you need a movie like that,” the actor said. “You need movies [like Watchmen ] to go so dark that then Avengers can go so light. I do believe in that."
Released in 2009, Zack Snyder’s Watchmen didn’t really perform all that well at the box office. The film greatly differed from modern superhero movies, such as Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy starring Tobey Maguire. It was way more violent and darker and also included some highly adult themes.
As opposed to Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man, Watchmen's (anti)heroes lived in a much grayer world. The movie was also entirely accurate to the Alan Moore comics (except for the end), which resulted in a much-increased run-time. Due to its one-of-a-kind stylized aesthetic, prolonged duration, and morally grey characters, Watchmen was able to set itself apart from the rest.
Even though the movie wasn’t received well in the start, it has managed to grow quite a lot in popularity over time and has become a cult classic. Furthermore, it also proved that superhero movies can turn out to be serious cinema with longer running times.
Watchmen was also adapted into an HBO show which goes by the same name, starring Jeremy Irons. Unfortunately, the show only ran for one season, although it was quite successful. Watchmen is now available for streaming on Max.
