Summary
- IT: Welcome to Derry poster released, offers glimpse of eerie setting.
- Series will have a 3-season run, first season with 9 episodes.
- Bill Skarsgård to reprise the role of Pennywise for “hardcore” performance.
After inching along in production for a few years, HBO’s horror series IT: Welcome to Derry has finally received its first poster, alongside extra character shots included in Max’s 2025 preview. IT: Welcome to Derry serves as a prequel spin-off to 2017’s IT, which casts Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves actor Sophia Lillis and Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard among the Derry kids haunted by the eponymous entity.
IT was created by legendary horror writer Stephen King in his 1986 novel, and the source material was previously adapted into a television miniseries in 1998, which has remained one of the horror genre’s greats. IT: Welcome to Derry was given the green light by HBO Max back in 2023 and the project is helmed by director Andy Muschietti, producer Barbara Muschietti, and co-producer Jason Fuchs, the team that delivered the 2017 movie and its 2019 sequel that saw the Derry kids grown up.
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IT: Welcome to Derry Prequel Series Releases First Poster
The first poster released for Welcome to Derry simply shows a wooden sign bearing the series’ logo, standing in front of an eerie field covered in fog. In tandem, Max, HBO’s streaming service, shared a 2025 preview video showcasing upcoming projects, which included new footage of the Derry kids looking understandably concerned and Jovan Adepo’s character eyeing a red balloon with a familiar laugh in the background. These tidbits join Andy Muschietti’s previous reveal that IT: Welcome to Derry is eyeing a three-season run, and it’s also been confirmed that season 1 will consist of nine episodes with Chris Chalk, Taylour Paige, Stephen Rider, and more undertaking lead roles.
Horror buffs are highly anticipating this dive into uncharted territory, and to put book lovers’ minds at ease, Andy Muschietti assured fans that Stephen King was very involved in IT: Welcome to Derry’s development. The new poster managed to pique excitement, but some were worried the series would be delayed until 2026 since it’s taking a while to announce a concrete release date. Others shared concerns about staying true to the source material, but plenty of fans had the utmost faith in HBO since the network previously ran the Game of Thrones and The Last of Us adaptations to success. Furthermore, followers are keen to see the early history of Derry, Maine unravel on the small screen, combined with the Eater of Worlds’ origin.
An IT project wouldn’t be complete without the iconic but terrifying Pennywise. Tim Curry struck fear into viewers’ hearts during the original adaptation, but Bill Skarsgård is the modern-day clown, and the actor recently teased that Welcome to Derry would be “hardcore.” After suiting up as Pennywise for the last two movies, Skarsgård was clad in prosthetics once again for Robert Eggers’ 2024 Nosferatu adaptation where he played Count Orlok. Welcome to Derry will see the actor return to the clown’s oversized cranium, shedding Nosferatu’s mustache, to play the dancing villain for a third time, and fans are preparing for plenty of nightmarish scares through his performance.
IT: Welcome to Derry is expected to be released later in 2025 on HBO.
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- Release Date
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2025
- Network
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HBO
- Directors
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Andy Muschietti
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Bill Skarsgård
Pennywise
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Source: Discussing Film