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Post-credits are everywhere now – so much so that fans now expectantly wait through every credits scroll, hoping for some sort of tease to keep them going until the next week, the next movie, or whatever comes down the road. Even the Watchmen HBO series played with the idea. As showrunner Damon Lindelof has revealed, it would have been in the spirit of the comics – and included an incredible cameo.
Speaking to Paste, Lindelof said they hoped to provide a series of "ancillary materials" as part of the show’s post-credits. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' seminal graphic novel did similar, with "Under the Hood," the Nite Owl's autobiography, appearing at the end of early issues.
One of those additions Lindelof intended to add would have been a spoof behind-the-scenes look at the show-within-a-show, American Hero Story, which details the lives of the Minutemen – and it would have starred American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy… as an alternate universe version of himself.
Unfortunately, the idea was eventually scrapped, as Lindelof explains: "It can't actually be Ryan Murphy, because then I would start feeling like the show actually has to be up to Ryan Murphy standards."
Murphy, though, gave his blessing for the puntastic title and the fictional brains behind American Hero Story eventually morphed into "a mysterious and elusive, reclusive showrunner who doesn’t give interviews."
Despite there being no Watchmen post-credits, there are still plenty of hidden materials to be found concerning the HBO series. The network has released the Peteypedia which acts chiefly as the "ancillary materials" Lindelof spoke of. Among the documents currently present are the full newspaper article report on Adrian Veidt’s 'death' and how Watchmen’s version of 2019 is radically different from our own. It should be updated weekly, so can act as your own personal post-credits come Sunday.
Still thinking about last week's premiere? Find out why one Watchmen theory suggests one character might have been a villain all along.
