The Watch creator Simon Allen wants to welcome you to the Discworld multiverse. Speaking to CBR, he explained how he envisions the BBC America series as its own world in Terry Pratchett's wider multiverse and compared the show's version of Discworld to the Star Trek franchise's Kelvin Timeline.
"There's a great line in Nightwatch, which is, 'Nowhere in the multiverse does Sam Vimes as he is now murder Sybil Ramkin,' and the word multiverse is used multiple times in Pratchett's books, as you know," Allen told CBR. "So we thought, 'Okay, we're [Star Trek director] J.J. Abrams with the Kelvin-verse. We're going to cite this in a kind of a backwater of the Discworld multiverse.'"
"The books there -- like Raymond Chandler once said of the Hollywood adaptations of his books -- the books are just fine," he added. "They're on the shelf. They're eternal. They'll never be touched. They will be spoiled. But this is its own thing and was always going to be from the start, and I hope people go with it. As I said... I think it's a lot of fun and I think it will take you into some wild places."
In his quote, Allen refers to Star Trek's Kelvin Timeline, which was established in the feature films directed by Abrams. The 2009 movie branched into its own timeline when a Romulan mining vessel traveled back in time and destroyed the U.S.S. Kelvin, killing James T. Kirk's father George in the process. As such, this movie fundamentally altered key aspects of the 1960s series, spinning it into a new universe and timeline. Similarly, Allen hopes his Watch series will offer a new take on Pratchett's beloved characters by crafting an original narrative influenced by the novels, rather than adapting them outright.
According to the official series synopsis,
The Watch follows an unlikely groudp of misfits, The City Watch, who are forced to find the guts to save the world, surprising even themselves in the process. The comedic yet thrilling series pits trolls, werewolves, wizards and other improbable heroes against an evil plot to resurrect a great dragon which would lead to the destruction of life as they know it.
The Watch is executive produced by BBC Studios' Hilary Salmon (Luther) and Phil Collinson (Doctor Who). The series, which will run for eight episodes, is written by Simon Allen (Das Boot). It stars Richard Dormer, Anna Chancellor, Lara Rossi, Ingrid Oliver, James Fleet, Marama Corlett, Sam Adewunmi, Jo Eaton-Kent, Adam Hugill, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Ruth Madeley, Bianca Simone and Ingrid Oliver. The Watch will premiere on Jan. 3, 2021.