MOVIE NEWS – In a sci-fi universe, Robert Redford spent nearly thirty years as president of the United States. Damon Lindelof (Lost) created this alternate reality in HBO Max’s Watchmen, where the American people chose the actor as their leader.

Yesterday brought the sad news of Robert Redford’s death, the legendary actor and director without whom Hollywood and the independent film scene would have been vastly different. What many may not know is that Redford was also celebrated as a lifelong activist, defending nature and the environment. He was such a progressive icon that, six years ago, a science fiction series portrayed him as the ideal person to serve as America’s president for nearly thirty years.

The series in question is Watchmen, HBO Max’s 2019 sequel to Alan Moore’s classic graphic novel, which extended the story into the present day. Readers of the original publication—or viewers of Zack Snyder’s faithful film adaptation—will recall that in this alternate timeline, Richard Nixon remained president from the 1960s into the late 1980s. Having abolished term limits, he ultimately died in office during the 1990s.

The Comic Itself Hinted at This Possibility

But Nixon could not be eternal (well, in Futurama, he sort of is), and so Lindelof made a logical narrative choice: Robert Redford became president. This wasn’t just his whim—the Watchmen comic itself drops this possibility in its final pages. At the time, of course, the reference came from the real-world context in which Ronald Reagan was president. Yet, in the HBO Max series, it worked perfectly, with Redford defeating Nixon’s replacement, Gerald Ford, in the 1992 election.

“We wanted to explore what would happen if a well-intentioned liberal white man stayed in power for too long,” Lindelof explained when the miniseries debuted. “Personally, as a white man, the notion that our country could reach a place without a huge amount of anger, backlash, and division to balance power between people of color and white people would be absurd. Nobody would believe it. We wanted to show how good intentions from white liberals could still lead to unintended consequences.”

Thus, Robert Redford became a key presence in Watchmen, even though he never filmed any scenes. His name is constantly mentioned, and his presidential portrait is shown, but there’s no cameo. Lindelof even wrote him a letter explaining the character’s significance and the high regard in which he was held. It’s unclear whether Redford ever replied, but by then he was already stepping back from acting. Had the invitation come a few years earlier…

Source: 3djuegos