Related
Warning : The pursue article contains SPOILERS forWatchmen .
HBO’sWatchmen ’s supplementary cloth check a choice morsel that seems to confute the fan theory that the late Judd Crawford ( Don Johnson ) was really Dan Dreiberg AKA Nite Owl . produce by Damon Lindelof , Watchmenis a good continuation of the classic graphic novel written by Alan Moore and exemplify by Dave Gibbons . The HBO series treats the schoolbook of the funnies as canon and picks up the story over 30 yr later . The mise en scene has change toTulsa , Oklahoma , andWatchmen ’s world has been changed in the wake of the successful hoax Adrian Veidt perpetrated to save the public from nuclear war in 1985 .
Watchmen ’s pilot episode , " It ’s Summer And We ’re Running Out Of Ice , " introduced Judd Crawford , Chief of the Tulsa Police Department . Under Crawford ’s leaders , theTulsa P.D. donned masksand took on unavowed identities as a reply to the White Night , a 2016 attack on the police by the white supremacist terrorist group called the Seventh Kavalry , who model themselves on the late vigilante Rorschach . After three years of peace , the Seventh Kavalry declared state of war on the police and are on a mysterious deputation ; to revenge , Judd andDetective Angela Abar(Regina King ) AKA Sister Night head an offensive against 7 K members hiding out in a cattle ranch . When members of the Kavalry endeavor to take flight in an aeroplane , Judd shot them down by unveiling the Owlship , which was the futurist signature fomite of Nite Owl . The fact that Judd also restrain a copy ofUnder The Hood , the autobiography of Hollis Mason , the original Nite Owl , of course seemed like clues that Chief Crawford was Dan Dreiberg live a raw life in Tulsa incognito .
associate : Watchmen possibility : HBO ’s Old Nite Owl Is Judd Crawford
Like the graphical novel , which concluded its first 11 chapters with supplementary materials aboutWatchmen ’s history , the HBO series has followed lawsuit with thePeteypediawebsite , which is an evolving digest of file by Agent Dale Petey of the FBI ’s Anti - Vigilante Task Force . In a elaborated memo Agent Petey wrote to his colleagues titled " Rorschach ’s Journal " and date stamp September 1 , 2019 , there is a choice morsel of lively information about the current whereabouts of Nite Owl:“Dreiberg , now in Union custody , has steadfastly reject to address to the Bureau about “ Rorschach ’s Journal , ” or anything , for that matter . “This effectively shoots down the theory that Judd Crawford is really Dan Dreiberg since , according to Petey ’s memo , Nite Owl has been held in hold since he and Laurie Blake ( formerly know by the superhero codenames Silk Spectre and The Comedienne ) were arrested by the FBI in 1995 for violating the Keene Act by continue their careers as costumed law-breaking - fighters .
It is n’t surprising that fans immediately assumed that Judd Crawford was really Dan Dreiberg : the unexplained fact that somehow Judd had self-possession of the Owlship point to Dreiberg live under another assumed identity element as Crawford . ( At theend of the lifelike novel , Dan and Laurie take on the identities of ' Sam and Sandra Hollis ' . ) Judd was also clear a fan of Nite Owl and was familiar with the career of both men who took on that superhero Mickey Charles Mantle . Further , when the Tulsa police were attack , Chief Crawford spearhead their new mission to bestow law and order while wear masks to keep their identity safe - just like Nite Owl would have .
While other majorWatchmencharacters likeOzymandias ( Jeremy Irons)and Laurie Blake ( Jean Smart ) come out in the HBO series - evenDoctor Manhattanwas record on Mars in the pilot instalment - the absence seizure of Nite Owl naturally made fans suspect that the appliance - invent superhero was already correct there hiding in plain sight . And , becauseJudd is enigmatically killed- seemingly by Will Reeves ( Louis Gossett , Jr. ) - and found hanging from a tree diagram by Angela , the fact that a major character is murder in the first chapter ofWatchmenechoes how the graphic novel commence with the slaying of Edward Blake AKA The Comedian , so it would have been proportion if Judd / Dreiberg was the victim kicking off the events of HBO ’s series .
However , theWatchmengraphic novel ’s supplementary materials were canyon so it ’s reasonable to believe that HBO ’s Peteypedia is also canyon for the TV series . This means that , unless Petey is consist or misinformed and Dreiberg is not in Union custody ( which seems unlikely ) , the belated Judd Crawford ca n’t be Dan Dreiberg and Nite Owl still live on inWatchmen ’s universe . Until it ’s confirmed in the serial itself , however , it ’s apprehensible if fan have their doubts .
Next : Why Watchmen ’s Critics And Audience Scores Are So Divided
Watchmenairs Sundays @ 9 pm on HBO .
