Welcome To Derry seems like the most non remarkable set of words at first glance, until the connection clicks for Stephen King addicts (and those Constant Readers). The title, of course, refers to Maine setting of the frequent TV watcher and horror maestro’s It franchise, which first surfaced onscreen in a 1990 miniseries starring Tim Curry. Years later, director Andy Muschietti rebooted the source material in 2017’s It and 2019’s It Chapter Two with the help of scribes Gary Dauberman, Chase Palmer, and Cary Fukunaga.
Both of those films were straight-up hits, so Welcome To Derry has been birthed as a prequel series. Obviously, this means that Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jaeden Martell, Sophia Lillis, and Finn Wolfhard won’t be making appearances as the Loser’s Club unless a time machine somehow becomes canon in this story. However, a significant (and downright vital) common element was recently revealed. It’s time to get down to business on what shall come.
Plot
The Warner Bros. Television series begins in the 1960s with the origin story of Pennywise the killer clown while he begins to prey upon his first scores of victims by feeding upon their fear. Also, Andy Muschetti not only developed the series (while teaming up with Barbara Muschietti, who produced the It movies) but is also directing several episodes. That information has been public for awhile, but a key question remained: would Pennywise appear in the flesh, and if so, then who would portray the demonic entity?
There was a danger here of Pennywise being recast, which would have been a shame since Bill Skarsgård went through the paces of fan scorn due to an early costumed photo and then earned his evil-clown stripes. Now, it’s hard to imagine anybody else portraying Pennywise even though Skarsgård wasn’t the first, but some excellent news recently developed, via Deadline:
A familiar face is coming back to terrorize the children of Derry, Maine. Bill Skarsgård is set to star in and executive produce the Max It prequel series Welcome To Derry (working title). He will be reprising the title role as It/Pennywise from the hit 2017 New Line movie It and its sequel, It Chapter Two.
Notably, what happens in this series will largely be unfamiliar to previous Pennywise viewers since the story will take place before the events of the initial cinematic defeat of Pennywise and a blood oath for the Losers Club to return and vanquish the demonic clown again. Despite diving into previously uncharted territory, however, the project received a thumbs-up from King (“Red balloons all around!”), who is thrilled that Andy and Barbara Muschetti are doing the honors. Likewise, the Muschetti siblings are all over this adaptation of their almost-lifelong obsession:
“As teenagers, we took turns reading chapters of Stephen King’s It until the thick paperback fell to pieces. It is an epic story that contains multitudes, far beyond what we could explore in our It movies. We can’t wait to share the depths of Steve’s novel, in all its heart, humor, humanity, and horror.”
Cast
As mentioned already, the audience will not have to warm up to any Pennywise other than Bill Skarsgård. Additionally, expect characters portrayed by Madeleine Stowe, Stephen Rider, Jovan Adepo, Taylour Paige, Chris Chalk, and James Remar.
Release Date
Max will stream the first nine-episode season in 2025 with a specific date to come.
Trailer
Too soon for a full-on trailer, but a peek at first-look footage can be seen at the 1:30 mark below.