New R-rated animated Watchmen movie trailer follows Rorschach’s uncompromising search for the truth

DC has released a new trailer for Watchmen: Chapter 1 – and we have chills.

In the newly released clip, we follow Rorschach as he recruits the Watchmen to investigate the sudden death of a fellow hero, The Comedian, in New York City.

The movie was officially announced at San Diego Comic-Con in 2023, but updates were few and far between after that until a trailer was released last month. Chapter 1 is only half the story, though – it’ll be followed by Chapter 2 in 2025. 

Per the official synopsis: “In an alternate world, the murder of a government-sponsored superhero draws his outlawed colleagues out of retirement, into a mystery that threatens their lives and the world itself.”

The voice cast includes Matthew Rhys as Nite Owl, Katee Sackhoff as Silk Spectre, Titus Welliver as Rorschach, Troy Baker as Ozymandias, Michael Cerveris as Dr. Manhattan, and Rick D. Wasserman as The Comedian.

Based on Alan Moore’s comic book series, Watchmen is set in an alternate universe where superheroes exist and changed the course of US history in the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s, including the outcome of the Vietnam War. The comics take place a couple of decades later, in the ’80s, on the brink of World War 3, when most superheroes have now retired.

Zack Snyder adapted Watchmen into a movie in 2009, which starred Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Lost showrunner Damon Lindelof created a limited series based on the comics for HBO in 2019. The cast included Regina King, Tim Blake Nelson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jeremy Irons, and Hong Chau.  

Watchmen: Chapter 1 is set to arrive on Digital on August 13, 2024. For more, check out our guide to the rest of this year’s biggest upcoming movies.