Key Takeaways
- IT: Welcome to Derry explores Pennywise’s chilling origins, including horrifying events from Stephen King’s novel.
- The series features an ensemble cast with a focus on The Black Spot tragedy from the book’s interlude.
- Through exclusive first-look images, viewers glimpse the 1960s period setting, hinting at dark revelations.
The upcoming television series, IT: Welcome to Derry, aims to bring horror fans back into the horrific world of Pennywise the Clown, but this time, its story will hark back to Stephen King’s most disturbing and tragic events that will bring one of his novel’s most horrifying scenes to life. Stephen King has had an array of adaptations from his novels that have made it to the screen, from Misery starring Kathy Bates to The Shining, but the most recent adaptations of It, the 2017 film and IT: Chapter Two, are arguably some of the best. Directed by Andy Muschietti, who also helmed the IT duology, Welcome to Derry will be a prequel to the movies and also see the return of Bill Skarsgård as the killer clown.
Along with Skarsgård, Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, Taylour Paige and James Remar will join the cast, as well as Stephen Rider, known for playing Blake Tower in the Marvel Cinematic Universe series Daredevil. Although the original 1990 IT movie was shot in Pickering and Port Hope, Ontario, both of which are popular filming locations for small-town U.S. shows, this time, most of the scenes for IT: Welcome to Derry were shot at the Delta Secondary School in Hamilton, Ontario. Over the course of nine episodes, the series will take place in the 1960s before the events of the film and will also include the origin story of Pennywise the Clown.
Related
Stephen King Reveals Favorite Horror Movie That Left Him in ‘Helpless Terror’
Legendary author Stephen King has disclosed his favorite scary horror movie that terrified him, and it’s not one of his own.
IT: Welcome to Derry Will Explore the Black Spot Timeline
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, a bunch of exclusive first-look images from IT: Welcome to Derry were shared, which included a range of characters from the series dressed in attire suitable for its 1960s time period. Although there hasn’t been any reveal, as yet, regarding whom the cast of actors in the series are playing, among the pictures, Jovan Adepo can be seen in his military outfit, suggesting he could be playing a younger Will Hanlon, as well as Paige, Will’s possible future wife, Jessica. Although creators Andy and Barbara Muschietti state in the interview that they don’t want to give too much away, they do confirm that the Hanlon family will play a part in IT: Welcome to Derry. The new IT: Welcome to Derry images also suggest a look at how the series will explore the tragedy of what happened during The Black Spot timeline, which is found in Stephen King’s IT novel in the second interlude and briefly mentioned in the first IT film, where Mike’s father, Will Hanlon, talks about his painful memories to his son.
The Black Spot nightclub was opened by Will and his friends, whose customer base was mostly black soldiers from the nearby Army base and a place to provide safety. One night in 1930, members of the Maine Legion of White Decency, a radicalized white supremacist group, raided the venue, burning it to the ground and killing the people who had become trapped inside along with it. Mike’s father reveals that he saw a giant bird with balloons sweep down from over the fire, which Mike recognizes as the same bird he saw a few years ago, hence discovering this event to be an earlier sighting of the sadistic killer clown,”IT”.
It’s clear that Pennywise fans the flames of hate already instilled in some characters, so IT: Welcome to Derry should provide an interesting in depth look into the killer clown’s origins and deprived psyche, something that hasn’t been unearthed before on screen. Currently, IT: Welcome to Derry doesn’t have a release date, but the series will be released on HBO sometime in 2025.
Related
This Stephen King Series Would Be The Perfect Prequel to The Dark Tower
Before Mike Flanagan’s The Dark Tower adaption premieres, this Stephen King series needs to be it’s prequel.
Source: Entertainment Weekly