Andy Muschietti’s It movies are getting the Penguin treatment with It: Welcome to Derry, an HBO spinoff series that heads back to 1962. Derry was still an eerie town decades ago, and Pennywise the Clown was still kidnapping children. But Pennywise may not be the only threat looming over Derry, and he’s definitely not the only Stephen King reference to be found.
In a new trailer for It: Welcome to Derry that debuted at San Diego Comic-Con, we got to see exactly what was going on back in the ‘60s, as well as a few Easter eggs. Check it all out below.
The trailer opens with Charlotte Hanlon (Taylour Paige) introducing herself to a shopkeeper (Kimberly Norris Guerrero) and commenting on how different Derry feels. We then see what she means, between children fighting in the street and missing posters getting plastered on walls. Just like in the two It movies, a group of children band together to try and solve these disappearances, in particular that of Matty, who went missing after watching The Music Man at the local theater.
We also see several familiar images, including Pennywise’s red balloon and a prison transport vehicle labeled Shawshank State Prison. That, of course, is a reference to Stephen King’s prison-break novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, and its more well-known movie adaptation, The Shawshank Redemption. It all builds to the appearance fans are waiting for: Pennywise the Clown, reprised by Bill Skarsgård.
One line in the trailer hints at an intriguing twist. While the kids are throwing around ideas for what could be threatening their existence, a small boy in a hammock suggests something completely different: “It's an orixá,” he says. “You know, an evil spirit.” Pennywise isn’t exactly a scientific villain, but could this series take the story even further into the supernatural?
Showrunner Andy Muschietti has already revealed that each season will move further into the past, so while we may not see most of these characters beyond the initial season, the mystery they’re up against should only get more intriguing. By the end, we may even know where Pennywise came from.
