“Anywhere but Derry,” warns a traumatized child in the eerie first teaser for HBO’s upcoming horror series. That sentiment perfectly captures the dread surrounding It: Welcome to Derry, the prequel to Andy Muschietti’s successful It films.
Set in 1962, It: Welcome to Derry expands the terrifying world established in Muschietti’s adaptations of Stephen King‘s famous novel. While the films explored events in 1988-89 and 2016, this nine-episode series goes deeper into Derry’s dark history.
The show revolves around the Black Spot, a nightclub that catered to Black patrons, and the catastrophic events surrounding its burning. According to Andy and Barbara Muschietti, “Every 27 years when It appears, Its cycle is marked by two catastrophic events, one at the beginning and one in the end.” The Black Spot incident serves as one such moment in Pennywise’s feeding cycle.
HBO dropped a teaser revealing several disturbing glimpses into Derry’s sinister underbelly. We get to see a new family moving into the town, unaware of its dark secrets, a mysterious string of missing children plaguing the community, and some unsettling visuals like creepy smiles, strange voices from pipes, and a child being dragged into a creek.
The series draws inspiration from the interludes in King’s novel where Mike Hanlon interviews Derry residents about their encounters with It. However, it follows the timeline established in Muschietti’s films rather than the book’s 1930s setting.
The It prequel is co-developed by Andy Muschietti, who directed both It films and will direct four of the nine episodes. The series is created alongside his sister/producer Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs, who co-produced It: Chapter Two.
Fans of the Derry story will be pleased to learn that Bill Skarsgård is returning as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. The rest of the ensemble cast features Jovan Adepo (likely playing a younger version of Will Hanlon, Mike’s father), Taylour Paige (possibly Jessica Hanlon, Will’s wife), Chris Chalk, James Remar, Stephen Rider, Madeleine Stowe, and Rudy Mancuso.
The show is expected to premiere on HBO and HBO Max later this year. For fans of King’s universe and the previous It adaptations, we can only hope that It: Welcome to Derry will deliver the cosmic horror and small-town dread that made the films so successful.
