Yesterday, pre-production on HBO's Watchmen series seemed to have commenced, but now it's official. The Hollywood Reporter reports that HBO has ordered a pilot for Watchmen. What's more, the network has commissioned additional scripts for Damon Lindelof's take on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' seminal graphic novel.

It was only July when Lindelof cast doubt on his involvement in a Watchmen series, revealing he's scared of not doing the source material justice. “I’ve been very vocal about my love for those 12 issues … that they were completely and totally inspiring for all the storytelling that I did subsequently, and that I owe a debt to it,” Lindelof explained at that time. “I do feel like I have to weigh the balance of ‘should it exist’ before I decide to take it on, and I’m sort of in that process now. I hold the source material in such high regard, it would literally be the worst feeling in the world to screw it up … all I can say is I’m thinking about Watchmen a lot right now.”

RELATED: Watchmen: Lindelof Teases Pre-Production of HBO Series with New Photo

Watchmen co-creator and artist Dave Gibbons is keeping a close eye on the development of the series, but isn't directly involved.  “I’m going to be interested to see what comes up,” he said recently. “If there is a way to make such things work, I’d like to see it.” Gibbons also made it very clear that he has no involvement with the show (at least at this point), stressing, “I really don’t know anything about it.”

Created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, Watchmen is the story of an alternate history in which superheroes first emerged in the 1940s, drastically altering the course of history. Set in 1985, as the United States and the Soviet Union inch ever closer to World War III, the comic centers on the investigation into the murder of the former costumed government agent the Comedian, which leads to the discovery of a deadly conspiracy to defuse the powder keg and bring peace to the world at the expense of millions of lives.

The Watchmen series does not currently have a release date.