On the strength of "Watchmen", the editorial staff of "2000 AD" asked Dave Gibbons if he would be interested in redesigning the Rogue Trooper character. Gibbons accepted and proposed also writing it, which was greenlit by Richard Burton. However, time commitments would not allow him to both write it and provide the stories art and Will Simpson was brought in to cover the art duties. Gibbons says the redesign "was my chance to put everything into Rogue Trooper I wanted and take out all the crap, like the bio-chips"