Summary
- "Welcome to Derry" is confirmed to be connected to Stephen King's "IT" and will likely serve as a prequel to the 2017 film adaptation.
- The horror television series is set in the 1960s to tell the origin story of Pennywise the Clown, exploring the early events from the book.
- While the actor playing Pennywise in the show is unknown, there is speculation that Bill Skarsgård may reprise his role, although it has not been confirmed by Max. The show is set to premiere in 2025.
Given the name of the Max television series Welcome to Derry, one could infer what it would be about. However, the show's official marketing materials never addressed the clear link between it and the book that inspired it until HBO released a look-ahead video of its 2024 and 2025 titles in December 2023. Based on the series' marketed title in the video, the first look confirms it is connected to one of Stephen King's works. The horror project was developed by Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, and Jason Fuchs and was initially supposed to premiere in 2024 until delays related to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike pushed it back to 2025.
Not much is known about Welcome to Derry except for the released cast list, which (for now) only includes Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, Taylour Paige, James Remar, Stephen Rider, and Madeleine Stowe. But even then, Max has not revealed the actors' characters. Of course, Welcome to Derry's premiere is more than a year away, so it may take a while before the streaming service releases any further news related to the television show following the brief clips from the 2024 and 2025 look-ahead video.
Welcome To Derry Finally Confirms It's About Stephen King's IT
Max's "Ones to Watch in 2024" video showed a few clips from the horror television series, and, for the first time, it marketed the project's title as Welcome to Derry: From the World of IT. So, the show is officially connected to IT, the popular book by Stephen King, and will likely serve as a prequel to the 2017 film adaptation. The handful of clips from the series in Max's video include a group of children riding their bikes through town, a mysterious woman in a forest, a scary hand emerging from the water to grab a boy, and a man watching as the infamous red balloon floats.
An It Prequel Can Finally Explain A Major Pennywise Victim Mystery
There are many mysteries surrounding IT's Pennywise, among them why children are its preferred victims – but this can be solved in a prequel.
Why Welcome To Derry Is Set In The 1960s
The writers of the Max horror television series pushed its timeline back to the 1960s to tell the origin story of Pennywise the Clown since some of the earliest events in Stephen King's book happened during that decade.
Welcome to Derry takes place more than 20 years before the events of IT and 40 years before IT Chapter Two, and the story occurs in the 1960s for good reason. The writers of the Max horror television series pushed its timeline back to the 1960s to tell the origin story of Pennywise the Clown since some of the earliest events in Stephen King's book happened during that decade. Viewers will get to see how Pennywise's story first started.
Unfortunately, the actor playing Pennywise in the show is unknown as of the writing of this article. Some speculate that Bill Skarsgård will reprise his role as the villain in the IT prequel series, but Max has not confirmed his involvement in the project. Skarsgård previously touched on the subject and revealed he was not attached to the streaming show. Nevertheless, someone will star as Pennywise in Welcome to Derry, and only time will tell who it will be.
Welcome to Derry is scheduled to premiere in 2025.