HBO's Watchmen Ozymandias Theory Gets Apparent Confirmation From Damon Lindelof

As expected from a show by Damon Lindelof--co-creator of Lost and The Leftovers--HBO's Watchmen sequel series is full of mysteries that have us speculating, guessing, and theorizing week after week. One of those mysteries is what exactly is going on with Adrian Veidt--AKA Ozymandias--a familiar Watchmen character being played in the show by Jeremy Irons. This week, Lindelof appears to have just put one mystery surrounding the character to bed.

Be warned: There are spoilers for Watchmen's first three episodes ahead.

On the newly released first episode of HBO's official Watchmen podcast, host Craig Mazin--yes, the writer and producer of HBO's acclaimed Chernobyl miniseries--interviews Lindelof about Watchmen's first three episodes, "It's Summer and We're Running Out of Ice," "Martial Feats of Comanche Horsemanship," and "She Was Killed by Space Junk." While questioning Lindelof about the Adrian Veidt storyline, Mazin laid out all the questions he has, from where Ozymandias is to the source of his many servants, who appear to all be clones.

The entire discussion is worth listening to, so definitely put the podcast on during your commute if you're into the show so far. However, there's one specific thing Lindelof said about the Veidt storyline that we consider the most significant:

"Now let me say, after three episodes, if you are worried, A, that's the intention. You should be worried. You should be worried as to like, why--what is this all for? Is it even real? Because it feels like it might be a little bit tonally aberrant," Lindelof says. "It's not--these are not parallel storylines, they are in fact converging lines that are moving towards one another."

The reason that's significant is it sounds like Lindelof is addressing one specific fan theory: that the Veidt storyline is not happening in parallel with the rest of the show, but is in fact taking place over a much longer period of time, similar to the way Westworld Season 1 featured two separate storylines that took place in different time periods before eventually converging at the end of the season. Similarly, Lindelof appears to be stating that Veidt's storyline and the one featuring Laurie Blake and Angela are "not parallel," but will eventually "converge."

Lindelof also promises that the show will answer all the other questions you have about Veidt, as well as those involving other mysteries, like what exactly is going on with Angela's grandfather, Will.

"Not only do we know where all of it's going, but I think, again, one of the things that was on that list that I was telling you about, of adjectives [I wanted to describe the show], was 'self-contained,'" Lindelof says, describing how he felt the original Watchmen comics definitively answered most of the mysteries and questions it presented, while still leaving some things ambiguous, like what Laurie would do next, and what would happen with Rorschach's journal.

"There's this sort of degree of ambiguity in terms of the way that it ends, and yet it also simultaneously feels immensely satisfying," he continues. "All this by way of saying is, every question that you just asked--where is Adrian Veidt, what's his relationship with the Game Warden, what's up with the cakes, where is he and what's he doing, where do all these clones, what have you, these beings, where do they come from, why is he obsessed with Doctor Manhattan--all of those things are answered very, very definitively."

Lindelof also discusses why they kept Veidt's identity a "secret" until the third episode. Partially, it had to do with not wanting the show to be definitively labeled a Watchmen sequel. Another concern was continuing the original books' sense of mystery:

"People forget--they didn't reveal who Rorschach was until halfway through the comic books' run. He was a guy who actually appears in the first issue as seemingly like a vagabond or a homeless guy holding this 'end is nigh' sign," the showrunner said. "And so, 'Who is that?'--that question--'Who is that?' is a big part of Watchmen to me too. And so we were trying to sort of replicate that fundamental idea as well."

No doubt Watchmen has many more mysteries in store for us. The show airs Sundays on HBO, and we're here every week to break each episode down, catch all the Easter eggs we can spot, and more.