Horror fans, clear your Halloween viewing schedules because HBO’s taking us back to Derry, Maine.
It: Welcome to Derry was developed for television by It and It: Chapter Two director Andy Muschietti, his sister and producing partner, Barbara Muschietti, and Jason Fuchs, with Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane (Tokyo Vice) as co-showrunners. The creative team crafted the prequel series based on the interludes in Stephen King’s novel with Mike Hanlon’s research into Derry, its residents, and the various sightings of It.
This season is the first in a trilogy that will explore the cataclysmic events in Derry’s history (with dates adjusted to fit the timeline of Muschietti’s films), beginning with the Black Spot fire in 1962, then going back to the Bradley Gang massacre in 1935, and the Kitchener Ironworks explosion in 1908. Each cycle of disappearances, deaths, and violence concludes with one of these notable incidents as a final bloodbath before the terror goes on a 27-year hiatus.
With Muschietti’s It being set in 1989, Welcome to Derry takes place in early 1962, 27 years before the Losers’ Club. The pilot sets the darker tone with Matty (Miles Ekhardt), a boy hoping to escape his abusive homelife, because if there’s anything the parents of Derry will do it’s traumatize their children. Trudging along in the snow, he hitches a ride with a deceptively normal-looking family and disappears.
Months later, Major Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) arrives in Maine, along with his friend, Captain Pauly Russo (Rudy Mancuso), to work under General Shaw (James Remar) at the Derry Air Force Base (D.A.F.B.). He’s soon joined by his wife Charlotte (Taylour Paige), an activist and stay-at-mom, and his charming and nerdy son, Will (Blake Cameron James).
Before we actually meet Will, we follow his future classmate Lilly (Clara Stack) as she battles personal demons, namely the loss of a parent. She’s not as close with her best friend Margie (Matilda Lawler), who’s torn between popularity and being an emotionally supportive friend. Lilly is also mourning Matty, which brings her together with Teddy (Mikkal Karim Fidler) and Phil (Jack Molloy Legault). Ronnie (Amanda Christine), daughter of Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider), a projectionist at the Capitol theater, makes her way into the group, along with Will and his friend Rich (Arian S. Cartaya).
We’re introduced to several characters, some newly created and others somewhat familiar. It’s a lot at first, especially for viewers who don’t know the coterie of King characters, but given this is a prequel, not all of them make it to the end.
As the story unfolds, we see the events from different perspectives, mainly Major Hanlon’s top secret work at the Air Base, Will with his new trauma bonded friends, and Charlotte as she gets to know her new town. She sees many menacing characters, and since she’s not yet numb to the kid on kid violence, her effort to stop a beating is met with stares.
It’s likely some viewers will gravitate more toward one perspective over the other. However, the show does a great job balancing the narratives so both have equal screentime. With secondhand shop owner Rose (Kimberly Norris Guerrero) and her nephew, Daniel (Joshua Odjick), the series also spotlights the Native American community who have their own history with the entity.
Major Hanlon also meets Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk), a well-known character in the Stephen King Universe, previously played by Scatman Crothers in The Shining and Carl Lumbly in Doctor Sleep. In Welcome to Derry, Hallorann is an airman using his special abilities to locate the source of the 27-year cycles.
Despite being kids on bikes looking for the shapeshifter, this new group of tormented youngsters aren’t rehashing the same plans as the Losers’ Cub. Some story beats are similar, like each kid experiencing their own nightmarish encounters with the entity and eventually banding together because no adults believe them.
The young actors deliver great performances in solo scenes and one-on-one interactions, but their chemistry isn’t always felt when they’re in a group. And if they look a little different throughout the series, that’s because the kids grew between wrapping for the strikes and returning to filming.
While Pennywise the Clown (Bill Skarsgård, also an executive producer) doesn’t fully appear right away, the evil entity takes on many other creatively terrifying forms to torment Derry’s children. As much as we love the demented clown, the build up makes the moment he arrives all the more exciting and satisfying.
Within the first ten minutes of the pilot, the Muschiettis and team give us plenty of nightmare fuel scenarios and creatures with some wild body horror. The slimy, squelchy, bone-cracking sound design and impressively grotesque imagery really standout, but the scares are often overpowered by unnecessary, distracting loud noises. The movies were also guilty of this, though the series really amps it up.
It: Welcome to Derry is an immersive prequel series that balances compelling narratives and characters with blood-soaked horror and delightfully disgusting effects. The show had the task of further adapting the best-selling novel, while expanding on the mythos of the cursed town, and it more than meets expectations.
It: Welcome to Derry will debut on October 26, 2025, on HBO and HBO Max, followed by weekly episodes through December 14.
