In the wake of The Penguin’s success, there are suddenly higher expectations for It: Welcome to Derry, another HBO prequel to a major movie franchise. It certainly has the hallmarks of both classic HBO and classic horror: a period setting, coming-of-age themes, and a classic villain in Pennywise the Clown. Now we have a new look at Welcome to Derry, and it also invokes a classic Stephen King trope: the ragtag group of kids solving a mystery.
The series follows a family as they move to Derry decades before the events of Andy Muschietti’s It movies. But children are going missing, and those that remain are starting to hear voices in the pipes. Take a look below.
In a move that’s familiar to fans of Stephen King — or Stranger Things — it’s up to the kids to find out what’s going on. “No adult's ever gonna believe what we saw,” one says. “I wouldn't!” So while Welcome to Derry is telling an original story, it hasn’t forgotten the conventions that made its source material famous. Ensemble stories like Stand By Me may not be mentioned in the same conversations as King’s more horrific works, but the two can be blended seamlessly, as the original It proved.
We get just a glimpse of Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the Clown in the trailer’s final moments, but there’s sure to be more to come. This series, set in 1962, is just the first of three planned seasons, according to Musichetti.
“The first season is 1962, the second season is 1935, and the third season is 1908,” Musichetti said in January. Clearly, the creative team is confident that Welcome to Derry will become a mainstay for both HBO and the King universe. It also means we can’t count on Season 1 to answer all the questions it introduces, but it should be a thrill ride nonetheless.
