HBO
Bill Skashgård reprises his role as Pennywise the Clown in «Welcome to Derry», a prequel to the «It» films from original director Andrés Muschietti.
The action of the series «It: Welcome to Derry», inspired by the novel by Stephen King, takes place in 1962 — 26 years before the events of the first «It» film, when the losers’ club is confronted with the creepy clown. The script was written by Muschietti himself, his sister Barbara and Jason Fuchs, with the trio also serving as executive producers.
Andrés also directed four of the nine episodes. In previous interviews, he has said explainedthat the series «will tell the story in the opposite direction of», given three seasons:
«This is a story based on the book’s interludes. Interludes — are essentially chapters that reflect Mike Hanlon’s research, fragments of it. For 27 years, the guy has been trying to understand what it is, what made it, who made it, who saw it, and all that… So the first season — is 1962, the second season — is 1935, and the third season — is 1908».
In addition to Skashgård, who recently added Count Orlok to his roster of villains from «Nosferatu», the cast includes Taylor Paige («Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.»), Giovan Adepo («Watchmen»), Chris Chock («Perry Mason»), James Remar («Oppenheimer») and others.
Skashgård previously hintedthat Welcome to Derry will take the opportunity to explore new facets of Pennywise and related stories that the films could not delve into due to their limited running time, and called the upcoming series «pretty hardcore», which will undoubtedly excite horror fans.
The series «It: Welcome to Derry» will be released on HBO and Max in the fall of 2025 — no exact dates yet.
Get ready to go back to where IT all began… 🎈 #ITWelcometoDerry is coming this fall to HBO Max. pic.twitter.com/SOhXEA6yYe
— Max (@StreamOnMax) May 20, 2025