Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Says It Was Important for Dr. Manhattan to Be a Black Man

Josh St. Clair

December 9, 2019 3:51 AM

Spoiler alert: this story contains spoilers for Watchmen's eighth episode.

Dr. Manhattan Actor Says 'Watchmen' Race Matters

Dr. Manhattan returns in episode eight of HBO's Watchmen.
Through flashbacks, we learn more about his origin and where he's been for the last 30 years (not on Mars!).
Actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II explains why his latest human form matters.

In Watchmen 's eighth episode, we finally learn just where the hell Dr. Manhattan has been all these years: mind-wiped inside the body of Cal Abar.

How he got there, we learn throughout the episode in a series of flashbacks designed to imitate the story structure of chapter IV in Alan Moore's graphic novel . Here Manhattan sits alone on Mars after leaving his second girlfriend. Readers are then queued into his origin story .

In the comic universe, after the destruction of the actual Manhattan, the character decides to leave Earth indefinitely and begin a new civilization on Mars. But apparently, in HBO's continuation, this genesis business only lasts so long.

Dr. Manhattan Actor Says 'Watchmen' Race Matters BusinessInsider USA Images

We learn instead that Manhattan never went to Mars. He did truck around Jupiter's moon, Europa, for a while, building that paradise, before getting bored and deciding to teleport back to Earth to do what he does best: woo dark-haired women. But since Manhattan experiences all time simultaneously, he claims he already fell in love with Angela Abar before meeting her (the falling in love occurring later on our timeline, but concurrent on Manhattan's).

Wanting to stay with Angela (Regina King), Manhattan decides on a human body and then gets himself mind-wiped with a device designed by Adrian Veidt. When he returns, he keeps his body, which is important.

"He has the power to be whoever he wants to be," actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II said in a recent interview with Men's Health. "And I think it's appropriate that Angela chose this body for Dr. Manhattan. And that Dr. Manhattan was completely fine with that."

Dr. Manhattan Actor Says 'Watchmen' Race Matters BusinessInsider USA Images

Writer and showrunner Damon Lindelof has said that part of his intention with Watchmen was to explore race and policing in America. The series, he noted, would take white supremacy as its enemy.

"We're living in a time where it's very important to acknowledge the fact that racial trauma is real," Abdul-Mateen said. "That intergenerational trauma is real. And it can be passed down from generation to generation." (The series has explored this both through its depiction of the Tulsa Race Riots of 1921 as well as Vietnam .)

It also became important to embolden particular characters against this violence. "I think that it's really cool that we can put out that image today: Dr. Manhattan in the body of a black man, as a God," Abdul-Mateen explained. "What better figure to face down white supremacy, the villain in our story?"

Josh St. Clair