HBO’s Watchmen opens in 1921 with a dramatization of the real-life Tulsa Race Massacre. Creator Damon Lindelof had learned about the tragedy only a few years earlier.
The nine-episode superhero limited series premiered in October 2019, starring Regina King as masked cop Angela Abar.
On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 96% score from 119 critic reviews. Audiences were cooler, giving it a 57% Popcornmeter.
At the 2020 Emmys, Watchmen won 11 awards from a season-leading 26 nominations. No comic-book adaptation had won a top Emmy before it, per Variety.
Accepting outstanding limited series, Lindelof dedicated the win to the massacre’s victims and survivors.
“The fires that destroyed Black Wall Street still burn today,” he said. “The only way to put them out is if we all fight them together.”
How the Tulsa Race Massacre Became the Heart of Watchmen
Lindelof first read about Tulsa in Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2014 Atlantic essay, “The Case for Reparations.” He recalled the experience to NPR in October 2019.
“I just didn’t see the world in the same way anymore,” he said.
“Mr. Coates mentioned Black Wall Street, which I had never heard of. So I bought this book called ‘The Burning,’ that was all about the Tulsa massacre, and I read it cover to cover in a couple of days.
“And right at that same time, I was being approached about Watchmen, and I was trying to think about one of the things that made Watchmen sort of electric was this sort of blending of ‘is that real history or is that not real history?'”
The Tulsa Race Massacre unfolded across May 31 and June 1, 1921, when a white mob attacked residents and businesses in Tulsa’s prosperous Black Greenwood district. Historians estimate that as many as 300 people may have died.
Writer and producer Cord Jefferson later called the massacre “the original sin of our show.”
Pilot director Nicole Kassell had never heard of the massacre until reading the script, per No Film School. She later spoke with Slate about filming.
“Our Day One of production was Day One of the massacre,” she said. “We had a priest come and bless the set.”
Lindelof later said he had no creative reason to continue Watchmen, describing its nine episodes as a complete story. The series also won four Television Critics Association awards, including program of the year.
