It's official: HBO picked up Damon Lindelof's "Watchmen" for a 2019 premiere.

The star-studded series was always expected to get the green light, but the network confirmed everything Friday, and shared the first tantalizing mini teaser:

Damon Lindelof is a true "Watchmen" fan, and posted a lengthy letter on Instagram outlining his love for the comic and his plans to "remix" -- not "adapt" -- the series.

The giant "Watchmen" cast includes Jeremy Irons, Regina King, Don Johnson, Tim Blake Nelson, Louis Gossett Jr., Adelaide Clemens, Andrew Howard, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Tom Mison, Frances Fisher, Jacob Ming-Trent, Sara Vickers, Dylan Schombing, Lily Rose Smith, and Adelynn Spoon.

"Watchmen" is set in an alternate version of history where superheroes are treated as outlaws.

As Lindelof explained in his letter back in May:

"We have no desire to 'adapt' the twelve issues Mr. Moore and Mr. Gibbons created thirty years ago. Those issues are sacred ground and they will not be retread nor recreated nor reproduced nor rebooted.

They will, however, be remixed. Because the bass lines in those familiar tracks are just too good and we'd be fools not to sample them. Those original twelve issues are our Old Testament. When the New Testament came along, it did not erase what came before it. Creation. The Garden of Eden. Abraham and Isaac. The Flood. It all happened. And so it will be with Watchmen. The Comedian died. Dan and Laurie fell in love. Ozymandias saved the world and Dr. Manhattan left it just after blowing Rorschach to pieces in the bitter cold of Antarctica.

To be clear. Watchmen is canon.

Just the way Mr. Moore wrote it, the way Mr. Gibbons drew it and the way the brilliant john Higgins colored it.

But we are not making a 'sequel' either. This story will be set in the world its creators painstakingly built ... but in the tradition of the work that inspired it, this new story must be original. It has to vibrate with the seismic unpredictability of its own tectonic plates. It must ask new questions and explore the world through a fresh lens. Most importantly, it must be contemporary..."

The comic book was previously adapted into a 2009 Zack Snyder movie. Stay tuned for more details on this HBO series, and a premiere date beyond "2019."

Speculation time: Will "Watchmen" air after the final season of "Game of Thrones"? Be paired with it in some way? Because now we have (at least) two major HBO series arriving on mystery dates in 2019. Guessing GoT airs first, with "Watchmen" to follow in the second half of the year. But we shall see.

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