Zack Snyder ‘Might Consider’ Keeping the Squid Attack If He Directed ‘Watchmen’ Today

Zack Sharf
·2 min read
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Zack Snyder’s comic book adaptations often get fans talking (see Superman killing Zod in “Man of Steel”), but no single decision was as bold as removing the giant squid attack from “Watchmen.” Snyder’s 2009 film adaptation departs from Alan Moore’s graphic novel in replacing the climactic squid attack with a nuclear attack for which Doctor Manhattan is blamed. Snyder has long stood by the change, but in a recent interview with Uproxx he admitted that he “might consider” keeping the squid if he was making a “Watchmen” movie in 2021.

“By the way, I love ‘Watchmen.’ I have no regrets. I love that movie 100 percent,” Snyder said. “It’s exactly what I wanted. And in some ways, I think there’s a great college class that someone could teach on the difference between Doctor Manhattan and the squid. And why we would have chosen Doctor Manhattan and how thematically that works as it relates to the climax of that book. But I would also say, that based on doing the movie that I just did, ‘Justice League,’ I might consider it. Only because I feel like it would have required a slightly longer movie to do the squid, than say, Doctor Manhattan.”

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Snyder added, “I think that to have the squid in the movie that I made, the movie would be a little bit longer. We had Manhattan already, so we didn’t have to set him up or anything.”

Snyder has long maintained that if he were to include the squid attack in his “Watchmen” movie, then he would’ve had to cut out another part of the story he loves, such as the Comedian’s funeral. Snyder had runtime constraints, thus the squid had to be sacrificed. As the filmmaker told press at the time, “It was probably best not to [include the squid] because it would’ve ended up adding another 15 pages to the script. You know, just to kind of make that make sense.”

Coming off his four-hour “Justice League” cut for HBO Max and in a world with an abundance of streaming platforms hungry for content, Snyder believes he could probably end up making a longer version of his “Watchmen” film that could support the giant squid attack. The scene is featured in Damon Lindelof’s HBO limited series “Watchmen,” but Snyder has yet to see it.

“I have not seen it yet,” the director said when asked for thoughts on HBO’s “Watchmen.” “I do plan on seeing it at some point, but I have not watched it yet.”

Head over to Uproxx’s website to read more from Snyder.

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