Where Is Watchmen's Ozymandias Now?

Before Episode Three of HBO's Watchmen re-introduced us to Silk Spectre/Laurie Jupeczyk and filled us in on what she's been doing all these years, out of all of the original heroes, we've had the most face-time with with Ozymandias (non-superhero name: Adrian Veidt). You know, the man we last saw in the comics sending a

Before Episode Three of HBO's Watchmen re-introduced us to Silk Spectre/Laurie Jupeczyk and filled us in on what she's been doing all these years, out of all of the original heroes, we've had the most face-time with with Ozymandias (non-superhero name: Adrian Veidt). You know, the man we last saw in the comics sending a giant telepathic squid hurdling into Madison Square Garden.

But that doesn't necessarily mean we know what's going on with him in his retirement years. Played by Jeremy Irons as an older version of the character, Veidt now lives in a strange, mysterious castle in the woods, surrounded only by a number of people (who are likely clones, robots, or clones of the same robots) doing his every bidding. In the world of the HBO series, we've learned that the public believes him to be dead. And Episode Three tells us that the robots and Veidt aren't alone—there's the mysterious Game Warden, who seems to be holding him in captivity.

Here, we run down everything you need to remember about Veidt, as well as what the HBO series has told us about what he's been up to after the comics, to get the most out of Watchmen on HBO.

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Who is Ozymandias?

In short: The smart one. Adrian Veidt is the son of mega-rich German immigrant parents, so when they died, he inherited their estate at age 17. He gave it all to charity, and did what every young-in did nearing the 1960s: Took a bunch of drugs and found himself. Veidt traveled the world and throughout the Mediterranean, ending up in Babylon at the site of Alexander the Great’s death. That’s where, eventually, he took said drugs and decided to become a superhero—calling himself Ozymandias.

When he returned to America, Ozymandias began busting up organized crime (side note: he’s not superpowered or anything, but it’s understood that he’s just as skilled physically as he is mentally, you know, if a Crossfit bro could catch a bullet), which brought him in the same circles as the main Watchmen crew, like the Comedian and Dr. Manhattan.

In the mid-1960s, a superhero named Captain Metropolis invited Ozymandias to become a member of a new superteam called the Crimebusters. When they tried to meet, the Comedian —who Veidt doesn’t have the best relationship with—kind of shat all over the idea of superheroes in general (i.e. how could a few people stand up against the threat of nuclear war?), so the group never came together. That’s when Veidt retired from superhero-ing, and started work on a much bigger mission.

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HBO

What was his mark on Watchmen?

This is when things get weird. Veidt is taking in all the terrible stuff happening in the world (on a giant, Best Buy-esque multi-TV setup, no less), and starts thinking that he can bring about world peace all by himself. The plan: Create a ginormous squid creature in his laboratory, teleport it to the middle of New York City so that it kills a bunch of people on impact, and convince world leaders that Earth is under threat of alien invasion, so that they unite against a common threat. Boom: World peace.

Over the course of Watchmen, Ozymandias does everything he can to fulfill his agenda—and stop anyone who might get in his way. We find out that the Comedian, who dies early in Watchmen, figured out the plan, so Veidt kills him. There’s also a controversy that runs throughout Watchmen, where people think Dr. Manhattan was causing terminal cancer via radiation poisoning in his associates—turns out Ozymandias framed him in an attempt to get the blue guy to flee earth. He also frames Rorschach—who’s on his tail the entire series, investigating the Comedian’s death—for murder.

In the final act of Watchmen, Veidt completes the plan—killing three million people and successfully convincing the public that the squid was an extraterrestrial being. The only hope for justice? Before his death, Rorschach sends his findings about Veidt’s crimes to the New Frontiersman.

Where did he end up after the events of Watchmen?

We’re not totally sure. Near the end of Watchmen, Ozymandias has one final conversation with Dr. Manhattan. Right before Dr. Manhattan leaves Earth for the last time, Ozymandias asks him, suddenly, “Jon, wait, before you leave… I did the right thing, didn’t I? It all worked out in the end?" Dr. Manhattan asks, “In the end? Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends.” As Ozymandias starts to ask, “Jon? Wait! What do you mean by…” And Dr. Manhattan vanishes. The last panel we see of Adrian Veidt is him, alone, looking backward, stern-faced.

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HBO

Of course, it’s still unclear whether or not Rorschach's account of Veidt’s wrongdoing was published in the New Frontiersman—but it’s obvious that when Watchmen ends, he’s unsure whether or not he made the right decision.

What happened to Veidt after that remains unknown. While the events after the conclusion of the comic were outlined in 2017's currently unfinished Doomsday Clock comics, Lindelof's series is not treating that story as canon in the HBO series. The only clue we get to Veidt's whereabouts in the new series only confuses things more. When we're introduced to Louis Gossett Jr.'s mysterious Will Reeves he's reading a newspaper with the headline, "Veidt Officially Confirmed Dead." But, if he's dead, why do we see an older Veidt, played by Jeremy Irons, hanging out comfortably in his castle?

In Episode Three we learn more about what the Watchmen world thinks happened to Veidt. When Laurie Blake and Agent Petey are flying to Tulsa, OK, to investigate Judd Crawford’s death, they have a brief conversation about Veidt.

They look out the window at the towering, new-age-looking Millennium Clock, and Petey mentions that someone named Lady Trieu bought Veidt's company from him. Petey also adds that he’s heard rumors around the FBI that Veidt had plastic surgery and moved to Argentina, where he’s living incognito.

Of course, we know that Veidt isn’t in Argentina, exactly—just the strange castle in a Scotland-looking coastal area. And if there wasn’t any doubt, Episode Three confirmed that Veidt is up to more than just play-writing. We see him building some sort of freeze-resistant suit, which he puts on one of the robot-clones. He asks the servant, “Are you ready to venture into the great beyond?” And in the next cut, we see that the robot froze to death. “We’re going to need a thicker skin,” he says.

When Veidt goes hunting for new materials, he’s nearly shot down by a masked figure—who we learn is called the Game Warden. The Game Warden sends a threatening letter to Veidt, where he refers to “the terms of your captivity,” and writes that he’ll shoot to kill if Veidt violates those terms again.

So what exactly is going on with Veidt’s living situation? Is he there against his will? If he is, whatever dangerous, inter-dimensional-or-space-travel situation he’s working with his servants on might just be his ticket out.

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