HBO Releases First Images From IT Prequel Series

Key Takeaways

• “IT: Welcome to Derry” prequel TV series on HBO will explore Pennywise’s origins.
• New images hint at connections to the IT films, setting the story 27 years before the first movie.
• Jovan Adepo’s character may share a link to Mike Hanlon.

Stephen King’s horror story IT is set to continue in a prequel TV series on HBO. A new batch of images for IT: Welcome to Derry have been released and tease potential connections to the recent IT films.

Pennywise has long been one of horror’s most notorious clowns and the two-part adaptation of King’s seminal novel in 2017 and 2019 only cemented that further. IT: Chapter One and IT: Chapter Two were widely successful, with the first IT movie becoming the highest-grossing horror film of all time. In 2022, it was announced that Andy Muschietti, who directed both of the IT films, was developing a prequel series, along with his collaborators Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs. The series is titled IT: Welcome to Derry and will tell the story of a new group of characters living in Maine, who are visited by Pennywise during one of his active killing periods.

New Images From IT Prequel Series Released

IT: Welcome to Derry will be released by HBO in 2025 and ahead of its release the company has revealed a handful of first-look images from the horror prequel. The series stars a new cast including Jovan Adepo (3 Body Problem), Chris Chalk (Gotham), Taylour Paige (Zola), James Remar (The Warriors), Stephen Rider (Daredevil), and Bill Skarsgård reprises his role as Pennywise the dancing clown. The prequel series will take place in 1962, which is 27 years before the events of the first movie, but it looks like there will be some setup in IT: Welcome to Derry for what’s to come further along in the timeline.

It: Welcome to Derry Contains a Link to Mike Hanlon

The main clue in the new stills resides with Jovan Adepo’s character who is shown wearing an Air Force uniform with the nametag “Hanlon” pinned to it. The Hanlon family has great relevance in the IT world, with Mike Hanlon being one of the main characters in the IT films, played by Chosen Jacobs in the first part and Isaiah Mustafa in the second. Adepo could be playing either Mike’s father or grandfather in the IT prequel and may be used as a vessel to tell the story of the Black Spot nightclub, which is briefly mentioned in the first IT film. In King’s novel, the Black Spot club was a place where many of the black soldiers from the local airbase found refuge, but it was eventually burned down by a white supremacy cult. Interestingly, none of the images include Pennywise the clown, although his name is written in the background of one of the stills.

Given that Pennywise is known to awaken every 27 years, IT: Welcome to Derry will seemingly explore the story of his rampage before the IT films. If the series does end up utilizing the story of the Black Spot club, it may also explore racial tensions in Derry at the time and how Pennywise’s influence escalates these events. The first look images for the series also show a group of young teen characters, which seems to suggest the IT series will be told from both adult and teen points of view. The series will supposedly also reveal the origins of the supernatural being that is Pennywise, something which is expanded on in King’s novel, but is yet to be fully explained on screen.

IT: Welcome to Derry will be released on HBO in 2025.