Watchmen star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II shares a set photo showing off Dr. Manhattan’s playful side. Damen Lindelof brought Alan Moore’s iconic comic book series to HBO last year and quickly made it his own. While HBO’s Watchmen is firmly set within the world of Moore’s comics, it takes place 34 years after them in an alternate 2019. Several characters from the comics appear within the show, but much of it is centered on newcomer Angela Abar (Regina King), or Sister Night. In Watchmen, masked vigilantes are outlawed, but police officers are similarly forced to wear masks in order to keep their identities hidden from the white supremacist group the Seventh Kavalry.

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Watchmen follows Angela as she investigates the Seventh Kavalry, and her search crosses paths with those looking for Dr. Manhattan. While the extremely powerful Dr. Manhattan is one of the most pivotal characters found in the Watchmen comics, his presence in the show was kept quiet for several episodes, with the blue-skinned superhero only being mentioned in passing. It wasn’t until the seventh episode that Dr. Manhattan properly appeared, along with the shocking reveal that he’s actually Angela’s husband Cal (Abdul-Mateen).

Abdul-Mateen had some fun with Flashback Friday on social media and shared a photo from the set of Watchmen. In it, he’s in full Dr. Manhattan makeup, but instead of adopting a serious expression, Abdul-Mateen showed off the hero’s playful side. He captioned it with “If ‘Blue Magic’ was a person.” You can see his post in the space below.

Abdul-Mateen’s star has been on the rise for some time now, having appeared in major films like Aquaman and Us in recent years. He will next be seen in Nia DaCosta’s Candyman reboot, which is currently still scheduled for release in September. Abdul-Mateen will also appear in major films like The Trial of the Chicago 7 and The Matrix 4, and he’s expected to return for Aquman 2 as Black Manta. Undoubtedly, though, fans are going to remember his Watchmen role for some time, especially because his Dr. Manhattan twist was one of the most surprising moments of the series.

Despite being very critically acclaimed (the series is up for 26 Primetime Emmys, including one for Abdul-Mateen), Watchmen won’t be returning for a second season. Lindelof wished to keep the story contained to just one season, and HBO has respected his wishes. King has also said she wouldn’t want to return for another season without Lindelof, so it seems unlikely that HBO will ever continue Watchmen’s story. Still, there are many who believe the first season was so perfect it doesn’t need any additional episodes, so this is perhaps the best course of action. At least this way, Abdul-Mateen will have more time to take even more roles.

Source: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II/Twitter

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Rachel Labonte
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Rachel LaBonte is one of Screen Rant’s core news editors, as well as a feature and movie review writer. A graduate of Emerson College, she majored in Media Arts Production while specializing in screenwriting. She’s been a writer ever since high school when she realized she was rather good at it and joined as many entertainment news clubs as she could while in school. Most notably, she wrote for Emerson’s website Emertainment Monthly, and one of her film reviews won an Evvy (Emerson’s student awards) for Best Review. Her deep love of movies led to her working at a movie theater for five years, which she loved despite the angry customers. An avid reader who constantly buys books before reading the ones she already owns, Rachel is a huge fan of superheroes (especially of the Marvel variety) and wizards and will likely never be able to catch up on all the movies/TV shows she longs to watch.

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