Bill Skarsgård hasn’t shied away from promising that Stephen King’s Pennywise the Clown will make a “pretty hardcore” return in It: Welcome To Derry. That revelation made the long wait for the HBO Max series feel more worthwhile, and that’s quite the turnaround from Bill’s early Pennywise days, which did not go well for Bill or his sleep patterns.
Despite his Pennywise being an unsettling hit during Andy Muschetti’s It movies, the Nosferatu actor didn’t plan on returning as Pennywise, but the (demonic) magic is happening again with the clown finally shown lurking in the sewer during It: Welcome To Derry‘s first full trailer earlier this week. The question remains, however (and since Pennywise habitually surfaces at 27-year intervals), when this series happens on the timeline of King’s It after the two Muschetti movies visited with the Loser’s Club in 1989 and 2016.
When Does It: Welcome To Derry Take Place?
Mainly in the 1960s. The trailer points toward 1962, but the series will also feature scenes from the 1930s when the Black Spot nightclub burns down. And that will propel the story further into the Mike Hanlon-focused interludes from within the It book.
Viewers can also expect other interludes to be adapted within It: Welcome To Derry, and Andy and Barbara Muschetti previously told Entertainment Weekly that “we felt that there was still a lot of story to be covered” from King’s vast novel, and “we are telling the stories of the interludes, writings by Mike Hanlon based on his investigation that includes interviews he conducts with the older people in the town.”
As King’s Constant Readers know, something rotten has always been going down in Derry, and the below trailer kicks off with a child attempting to hitchhike away from the fictional Maine city. Get ready to float.
It: Welcome To Derry will arrive in late 2025.