It seems like, somewhere along the line, people began thinking that you could successfully make a franchise by simply adding “extended universe” to a concept. It doesn’t always work, but it seems like the great minds in Hollywood have taken the idea and run with it, because we are extending and expanding universes left and right lately. Now, we are getting into the IT extended universe so that we can all experience a clown universe, thanks to the success of Terrifier 2.
Welcome To Derry will expand on the IT franchise that you were afraid of as a child but by the time you were old enough to care, it stopped being scary. HBO Max will bring Pennywise to life (again! he doesn’t die) with the help of filmmaker Andy Muschetti, who will direct the pilot episode.
According to the press release, the series will be a prequel to the iconic horror tale: “Set in the world of Stephen King’s IT universe, WELCOME TO DERRY (wt) is based on King’s IT novel and expands the vision established by filmmaker Andy Muschietti in the feature films IT and IT Chapter Two.” Maybe the real horror here is trying to Google “It” and expecting to get any sort of information out of it.
Of course, we have seen this before. Castle Rock, Hulu’s take on the Stephen King cinematic universe, had all of the right stuff to make a successful TV show: horror, ghosts, and a Skarsgard (doesn’t matter which one), so it should have worked. But, it didn’t have that “extended universe” tag, so nobody really cared, so it was canceled and once again Melanie Lynskey was robbed of some sort of award.
But it seems like Stephen King has learned from this, and feels confident in HBO’s ability to populate the sewer systems with haunted clowns. The author expressed his excitement in a statement: “I’m excited that the story of Derry, Maine’s most haunted city, is continuing, and I’m glad Andy Muschietti is going to be overseeing the frightening festivities, along with a brain trust including his talented sister, Barbara. Red balloons all around!”
Listen, balloons are scary right now, so this might actually work. Considering that Bill Skarsgard has portrayed Pennywise in the past, maybe HBO can bring him back so that they get they can give the proper “horror, ghosts, and a Skarsgard” formula another shot. Again, it doesn’t matter which one, any of them would work.