VIDEO: Don Johnson Takes on Masked Vigilantes in Gritty New 'Watchmen' Teaser

The clock is ticking on HBO’s upcoming “Watchmen” series.

On Wednesday, the network released a new teaser for Damon Lindelof’s (“Lost” and “The Leftovers”) much-anticipated adaptation of “Watchmen,” Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ seminal 1986 graphic novel about a reviled group of morally ambiguous superheroes who exist in an alternate reality where Richard Nixon never resigned and the Cold War rages on harder than ever.

Set to an anxiety-inducing chorus of ticking clocks, the clip features an army of masked vigilantes dressed in flannel and enigmatically painted ski masks preparing to face off against a band of law enforcement officers led by Don Johnson.

Whereas “Watchmen’s” previous live-action adaptation—Zack Snyder’s 2009 film starring Malin Akerman and repeat Stern Show guest Jeffrey Dean Morgan—stayed exceedingly faithful to the source material, Lindelof’s show seems to stray much further from the comics. “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. … Some of the characters will be unknown. New faces. New masks to cover them,” he explained in a 2018 open letter to fans.

Among those new faces in the teaser are recent Oscar winner Regina King, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (“Aquaman”), Jean Smart (“Legion”), Tim Blake Nelson (“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”), Louis Gossett Jr., and one very shirtless Jeremy Irons.