Actors in the animated film “Watchmen”: Katee Sackhoff, Matthew Rhys

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Rorschach is back on the case.

Matthew Rhys (“The Americans”), Katee Sackhoff (“The Mandalorian”), Titus Welliver (“Lost”), Michael Cerveris (“The Gilded Age”) and Troy Baker (“The Last of Us”) are among the voice actors in “Watchmen Chapter I,” the new animated adaptation of the groundbreaking graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. The two-part film – directed by Warner Bros. Animation veteran Brandon Vietti (“Batman: Death in the Family,” “Batman: Under the Red Hood”) and adapted by comedian J. Michael Straczynski (“Sense8,” “Babylon 5”) – was first announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2023, but no details on cast and filmmakers were announced until Wednesday, when the official trailer for the project first premiered.

Set in an alternate world where costumed vigilantes are real, Watchmen has been hailed as a masterpiece since its debut in 1986, questioning the nature and morality of superhero storytelling. Rhys will voice Dan Dreiberg (aka Nite Owl), Sackhoff will voice Laurie Juspeczyk (aka Silk Spectre), Welliver will voice Walter Kovacs (aka Rorschach), Baker will voice Adrian Veidt (aka Ozymandias) and Ceveris will voice Jonathan Osterman (aka Dr. Manhattan).

For decades, “Watchmen” — with its centuries-long plot and confrontational subject matter — proved a stubborn title that couldn’t be adapted, passing through the hands of filmmakers like Terry Gilliam, Darren Aronofsky and Paul Greengrass. But in 2009, Warner Bros. finally released a nearly three-hour live-action adaptation of “Watchmen,” starring Patrick Wilson, Malin Akerman, Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode and Billy Crudup and directed by Zack Snyder, who went to great lengths to recreate the look of Gibbons’ artwork down to the smallest detail. The film received mixed to positive reviews and grossed $185.3 million worldwide. (The 2019 HBO miniseries “Watchmen,” set 34 years after the events of the graphic novel, was well received and won several Emmys, including Best Miniseries.)

The new animated film was also approached with great reverence for the original material. Gibbons served as consulting producer and Straczynski posted on social media that his adaptation meant “strictly configuring the structure to work in a movie” and that he “saw no need to write more material or change what works in the book. It’s pure Moore.”

The rest of the animated film’s voice cast includes Rick D. Wasserman as Edward Blake (aka The Comedian), Adrienne Barbeau as Sally Jupiter (aka the first Silk Spectre), Jeffrey Combs as Edgar Jacobi (aka Moloch), Geoff Pierson as Hollis Mason (aka the first Nite Owl), Corey Burton as Captain Metropolis, John Marshall Jones as Hooded Justice, Yuri Lowenthal as Wally Weaver, and Kari Wahlgren as Janey Slater.

Grey DeLisle, Kelly Hu, Max Koch, Phil LaMarr, Dwight Schultz and Jason Spisak voice in unspecified roles. Vietti, Jim Krieg and Cindy Rago are producers and Sam Register, Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin are executive producers.

“Chapter I” will be released digitally on August 13th and on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray on August 27th. “Watchmen Chapter II” will be released in late 2024.

Here is the first trailer.