HBO's new series, produced and written by Damon Lindelof (Lost, The Leftovers), is set approximately 30 years after the events of the original Watchmen graphic novel (and specifically the novel, not Zack Synder's 2009 movie) and picks up on storylines and characters. Veidt was the antagonist of the novel, but one motivated by what he claimed was altruistic goals: achieving world peace by faking an alien attack on New York City in 1985, giving the United States and Soviet Union a common enemy to unite against. Famously, Veidt succeeded in his plan and was left alive at the end of the story to live with the millions of casualties he had unleashed in the process.
Jean Smart (Fargo) is also playing a character, an FBI agent with the surname "Blake", the same as Edward Blake (aka the Comedian, whose murder kick-started the original story). SlashFilm suggest she may actually be playing Laurie (aka Silk Spectre), the daughter of Edward Blake and a key protagonist of the original mini-series, but this is supposition (although supported by her age).
Season 1 of Watchmen has been shooting for several months and is expected to air on HBO in the summer or autumn of 2019.
I'm extremely skeptical about this entire idea... but those are pretty persuasive castings. With impressive (and distinct) roles in both Fargo and Legion in the last few years, Smart seems to be having a really good period of her career (I haven't seen A Simple Favour). And Irons is... perfect. When you said 'Jeremy Irons', I thought immediately, without even knowing the show was set thirty years later, "oh, he must be an older Ozymandias"... and now I can't imagine anyone else having that role...
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