It: Welcome To Derry Answers Every Question You Were Too Afraid To Ask About Pennywise

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The idea for the series Welcome to Derry first came to Andy Muschietti while he was making the 2019 film It Chapter Two. He and his sister, Barbara, began developing the series after a conversation with actor Bill Skarsgård about Stephen King’s famous shapeshifting monster.

Director Andy Muschietti felt that the story of Pennywise, as presented in the films, had many unanswered questions—we understand how It hunts and is defeated, but not why It chose Derry, Maine, or why It takes the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. The new series, It: Welcome to Derry, aims to answer those questions by looking back at previous periods of terror in the town’s history. In an interview with Game Rant, Muschietti and co-showrunners Jason Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane discussed why exploring Pennywise’s origins is a compelling idea.

Welcome To Derry Fills In The Blanks About Pennywise

Director Andy Muschietti’s films It and It Chapter Two are, at their core, stories about people and how they cope with fear. The films follow a group of friends, known as the “Losers Club,” as they confront a terrifying, supernatural creature. Muschietti has always focused on the human side of the story, emphasizing that the characters never fully understand the creature’s motives. He and actor Bill Skarsgård, who also produces the show, were especially curious about why the creature so often appears as a clown – a question that even Stephen King never answered in his original novel.

I was eager to explore that idea and finish the puzzle. By doing so, I hoped to introduce new mysteries that would ultimately reveal surprising connections to the larger story and world of It, a world that exists beyond our own.

For the first season of Welcome to Derry, set in 1962, Andy and Barbara Muschietti used the history of Derry as documented by Mike Hanlon, a member of the Losers Club. In Stephen King’s book, Hanlon is the only member of the group who stays in Derry after their initial victory over It, and he dedicates himself to studying the town’s past patterns of evil.

Image courtesy of HBO Max

Mike Hanlon figures out that the creature ‘It’ resurfaces about every 27 years to terrorize the town of Derry, and his research on past events is a key part of the story. This inspired the creators of the Welcome to Derry series to focus the first season on Mike’s grandparents, Leroy and Charlotte Hanlon. They move to Derry because of Leroy’s military job and face prejudice as a Black couple in a predominantly white town.

The Muschiettis are planning three seasons of Welcome to Derry, and they’ll be presented in reverse order. Each season will focus on one of the three historical events documented by Mike Hanlon.

  • 1962 – (1930 in the novel) Several children go missing, Black Spot nightclub is burned by white supremacists.
  • 1935 – (1929 in the novel) Derry police engage in a shootout with the Bradley Gang, killing many.
  • 1908 – (1906 in the novel) An explosion at the ironworks kills dozens of children during an Easter egg hunt.

Stephen King Loved The Idea From The Start

The Muschiettis had been friends with Stephen King for a decade when they pitched him the idea for Welcome to Derry, but they were still amazed by his enthusiastic response. Barbara Muschietti recalled that he’s consistently been very supportive and eager to explore the darker, more complex parts of his book. Andy Muschietti shared that King was especially pleased with their plan to tell the story backwards, covering all three major cycles of events he refers to as the ‘Big Three’.

He was thrilled that we were playing with the sandbox, helping to link together the seemingly random elements he’d deliberately included in the book.

Jason Fuchs, the showrunner, shared that Stephen King was heavily involved in the production, reviewing scripts and giving feedback on casting. However, King didn’t reveal what he truly thought until recently, when he posted on social media praising the show as ‘amazing’ and the first episode as ‘terrifying.’ He called it a career highlight. Fuchs explained that King’s writing inspired him to become a storyteller and fueled his passion for horror, making the author’s approval especially rewarding.

Welcome To Derry Will Be Scarier Than Ever Before

The movies It and It Chapter Two were already quite scary, but turning the story into a TV series called Welcome to Derry has allowed the creators – Fuchs, Kane, and the Muschiettis – to really ramp up the horror. The show is much darker, more graphic, and more frightening than the films. Without giving away any major plot points, Welcome to Derry focuses much more on disturbing body horror and vividly shows just how brutal and unsettling It’s different forms and hunting methods can be. Fuchs was particularly excited to be able to include more of this type of horror in the series.

Body horror taps into a really fundamental fear – the idea of losing control over your own body. We explored this quite powerfully in one of our earlier episodes.

Brad Caleb Kane explained that the fears explored in It: Welcome to Derry aren’t just current – they’re passed down through families, impacting future generations. This includes inherited trauma and the consequences of past actions. Bill Skarsgård will return as Pennywise the Clown, and the show will showcase even more frightening ways Pennywise can change its form. The creative team is delving into what truly scares people and how those fears evolve over time, even within a close-knit community.

After their work on the It films, filmmakers Andy and Barbara Muschiettis, along with producers Roy Lee and Dan Kane, have expressed strong interest in adapting more of Stephen King’s stories. Could Welcome to Derry be the beginning of a series exploring the backstories of King’s iconic characters and monsters? While nothing is official, it’s a definite possibility.

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2025-10-21 16:13