Get ready to return to the cursed town of Derry, Maine. IT: Welcome to Derry is a chilling prequel series to the hit IT films, bringing back Pennywise and diving deep into the town’s horrific past.
Basic Info
- Title: IT: Welcome to Derry
- Genre: Horror, Supernatural, Thriller
- Format: TV series (hour‑long episodes, TV‑MA)
- Platform: HBO (US cable) and Max streaming
- Premiere: 26 October 2025 (weekly episodes through late 2025)
Episodes, Runtime, Platform
- Estimated runtime: Around 50–60 minutes per episode, standard for HBO dramas.
- Season 1 episode count: Early listings indicate a limited series–style first season (around 8–10 episodes), airing weekly on HBO and same‑day on Max.
- Where to watch:
Main Cast & Characters
- Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, returning to the role he made iconic in the 2017 and 2019 films.
- Taylour Paige – part of the core ensemble, playing one of the Derry residents who begins noticing the town’s sinister undercurrent.
- Jovan Adepo – appears as a man with ties to Derry’s hidden history and racial tensions in the 1960s.
- Chris Chalk – plays a key adult figure uncovering patterns behind disappearances and tragedies.
- James Remar – portrays an older Derry local connected to long‑buried secrets.
Additional character names like younger townsfolk and families appear in the full cast list on IMDb, expanding the community around early Pennywise manifestations.
Overview
IT: Welcome to Derry is set decades before the Losers’ Club story, focusing on how Derry first became a feeding ground for an ancient evil.
The series explores generational trauma, systemic denial, and how a town chooses to look away while children vanish and inexplicable horrors repeat every cycle.
Plot (No Big Spoilers)
The story takes place in 1962 Derry, Maine, roughly 27 years before the events of IT (2017), aligning with Pennywise’s feeding cycle.
Residents begin to witness strange phenomena: disturbing visions, violent accidents, and patterns of missing children that echo local myths about a clown and a creature in the sewers.
As fear spreads, a small group of townspeople and teens start connecting the tragedies, uncovering Derry’s long record of massacres, disasters, and covered‑up deaths stretching back generations.
Their investigation leads them toward the heart of the town’s rot—underground tunnels, old records, and the legend of a shape‑shifting horror that has worn many faces, including that of Pennywise.
Highlights & Hooks
- Pennywise Origin Focus: The show promises a deeper look at how Pennywise’s presence takes root in Derry, exploring his influence on the town’s culture of silence and cruelty.
- Same Creative Team as Films: Andy and Barbara Muschietti return as executive producers, keeping the visual style and tone close to the two IT movies.
- 1960s Horror Aesthetic: The 1962 setting allows for social horror, including small‑town prejudice and period tension layered on top of supernatural terror.
- Expanded Derry Lore: The series taps deeper into Stephen King–style world‑building, showing more of the town’s bloody history only hinted at in the films.
Why to Watch
- For IT movie fans: This is a direct prequel in the same continuity, with Bill Skarsgård back, making it essential viewing if you loved the 2017 and 2019 films.
- For horror lovers: Expect atmospheric dread, psychological horror, and disturbing set‑pieces rather than just jump scares, fitting HBO’s darker prestige drama style.
- For Stephen King universe followers: The show expands King’s mythos around Derry’s cursed nature, giving more context to the recurring tragedies that define the town.
Recommendation (Viewer POV)
- Must‑watch if:
- Best way to experience it:
- Rewatch IT and IT Chapter Two first for maximum emotional impact, then stream IT: Welcome to Derry weekly on HBO/Max and follow fan theories and episode breakdowns as new chapters drop