Now is a great time to be a Stephen King fan, as several more adaptations of the author's work are set to be released this year. King is one of the most celebrated authors of all time, and has published more than 60 books over the course of his 50+ year career. Stephen King's best books include Carrie, The Shining, It, and The Dark Tower series. Not only are they all thrilling reads, but many of King's stories have proven to be very well-suited to movie adaptations. 2t6cp

HBO's IT prequel, It: Welcome to Derry, is set for release in the coming months, but while viewers are waiting, they can watch another Stephen King adaptation released five years ago. The long-anticipated prequel to King's acclaimed novel, It: Welcome To Derry, is set in the 1960s and is set to explore the mysterious origins of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, who reappears every 27 years. The cast of It: WelcomeToDerry includes Bill Skarsgård reprising his iconic role of Pennywise and will introduce new characters to the clown's backstory.

The massive success of Stranger Things on Netflix has been followed by more shows emulating the hit sci-fi series’ tone and approach, as well as a search for which teen-centric horror show will take its place after the finale. When the show arrived, it found a lightning-in-a-bottle balance of horror, sci-fi, action, mystery, comedy, and nostalgia for past decades with young teens at the center. After debuting as a huge new hit for Netflix in 2016, Stranger Things is finally coming to an end with season 5, which is expected to debut on the streaming service later in 2025.

The official trailer for It: Welcome to Derry, premiering in Fall 2025 on HBO and HBO Max.

The first trailer for It: Welcome to Derry has been released, teasing what to expect from HBO's TV show prequel to Stephen King's It. The It: Welcome to Derry TV show serves as a prequel to 2017's It, showcasing the deaths and disappearances Pennywise the Clown (Bill Skarsgård) was responsible for in 1962. Although not much is known about the storyline, it hints that the series will showcase events alluded to in the movies as the paranormal entity torments the children of Derry.

The HBO prequel It: Welcome to Derry has the perfect opportunity to confirm a popular Stephen King fan theory. With close to 70 books and 200 short stories, the horror author is by far one of the most prolific writers of the past century. Good onscreen versions of his stories aren’t scarce, but Andy Muschietti’s duology, It and It: Chapter Two, is one of the best Stephen King movie adaptations. As such, the announcement of a prequel called It: Welcome to Derry received overwhelming excitement from fans.

Welcome to Derryis the prequel to Andy Muscietti’s highly successful Stephen King movies It and It Chapter Two, and as work on the It TV series is well underway at HBO Max there’s already plenty to discuss. The It movies and story focus on the town of Derry, Maine, which is plagued every 27 years by a malevolent presence known as Pennywise. Pennywise is a demonic clown with extradimensional origins, able to take on a variety of ghoulish forms.

It: Welcome To Derry gets its release window confirmed in a new report following rumors of a delay. Following the success of It (2017) and It Chapter Two (2019), the world of Stephen King's hit horror franchise is set to return with a new HBO show. Hailing from It movies director Andy Muschietti and co-showrunners Jason Fuchs and Brad Caleb Cane, the It: Welcome to Derry story chronicles horrifying events in the eponymous town in the 1960s. Though originally slated for release in 2025, recent rumors have suggested the show was bumped to 2026.

IT franchise star Isaiah Mustafa has opened up about the possibility of returning for a third movie, with the franchise soon set to expand with the Welcome to Derry prequel show. Based on Stephen King’s classic 1986 horror novel of the same name, Mustafa ed It: Chapter Two's cast as the adult version of Mike Hanlon, the same character played by Hawaii Five-0’s Chosen Jacobs in the first movie. Later this year, HBO is set to release its new prequel show, set in the same continuity as Andy Muschietti’s two-part movie adaptation, with Bill Skarsgård returning as Pennywise.

Welcome to Derry will explore parts of Derry and It’s past years before the events of the 2017 movie, and the show’s plans for the future show how it can solve a huge mystery about Pennywise’s origin. The world of Stephen King’s It is a lot more extensive than it seems, and after Andy Muschietti’s film duology, his version of the novel will continue to expand. Instead of a third movie, It is expanding with a prequel TV series, set 27 years before the Losers Club came across the shapeshifting creature.