Please be aware: This article contains spoilers for Episode 1 of IT: Welcome to Derry.
Although the Losers Club may have finally managed to conclude their struggle in the 2019 film, *IT Chapter Two*, Andy Muschietti, director of the two-part *IT* adaptation, now presents the HBO prequel series *IT: Welcome to Derry*. This new series transports viewers back to an era when the malevolent dancing clown—along with its various other manifestations—were actively present, thriving, and preying on children.
Following the significant triumph of the *IT* film, which became the highest-grossing horror movie ever, and its succeeding sequel, *Welcome to Derry* draws its inspiration from five interlude sections within Stephen King’s renowned 1986 novel. It is planned as a three-season series, with each season set in 1962, 1935, and 1908, in that order. This endeavor, collaboratively developed by Muschietti, his sister Barbara Muschietti, and co-showrunner Jason Fuchs, aims to delve into Pennywise’s beginnings (with Bill Skarsgård returning to the role). It does this by reverting to specific historical periods, marked by 27-year gaps, that align with It’s cycles of awakening and active predation on the children of Derry, Maine. The show’s timeline adheres to Muschietti’s cinematic adaptations, diverging from King’s original book; consequently, the Losers Club’s initial encounter with It occurs in 1989 instead of 1958, and their ultimate confrontation in 2016 rather than 1985.
In a translated Spanish-language interview, Muschietti elaborated on the importance of these interlude chapters—which originate from the diary of Mike Hanlon, the sole Losers Club member to stay in Derry after It was forced into early dormancy as children. He stated, “The interludes fundamentally consist of chapters showcasing Mike Hanlon’s investigations. They represent excerpts of his research. For 27 years, he’s the one attempting to decipher its nature, its actions, its perpetrators, its witnesses, and related aspects.” He further added, “Each time [Pennywise] emerges from its slumber, a major catastrophic event marks the commencement of that particular cycle.”
The debut episode of *Welcome to Derry*, broadcast Sunday on HBO, commenced with a prologue depicting the unsettling vanishing of young Matty Clements (Miles Ekhardt), a boy who appeared unusually old to be using a pacifier, after he accepted a ride from a family under It’s influence subsequent to an evening at Derry’s cinema. The narrative then advanced four months to April 1962, where a cohort of Matty’s outcast peers—Phil (Jack Molloy Legault), Teddy (Mikkal Karim-Fidler), and Lilly (Clara Stack) among them—started suspecting that Matty’s disappearance might signify something far more sinister than a typical missing person scenario.
Lilly’s experience of hearing Matty sing “Ya Got Trouble” from *The Music Man* emanating from her bathtub drain and witnessing his blood-stained fingers emerge through the plumbing instigated a sequence of events. This led the initial three—joined by Phil’s younger sister Susie (Matilda Legault) and Ronnie (Amanda Christine), whose father was the cinema’s projectionist—back to the movie theater to uncover the true events of Matty’s disappearance. However, when Ronnie initiated the projection of the theater’s *The Music Man* film, Matty materialized on screen, seemingly cradling a swaddled infant. Shortly thereafter, chaos erupted as Matty, now displaying Pennywise’s characteristic insane grin, propelled the bundle’s contents through the screen. It was then revealed to be the winged demonic infant previously seen being born to the woman in the car that picked Matty up in the prologue, though now significantly enlarged.
Until this juncture in the episode, the narrative appeared designed to suggest that this group of appealing outcasts, uniting in their quest for Matty, represented the formation of a new Losers Club. Yet, the demonic infant subsequently brutally dismembered and killed Teddy, Phil, and Susie, leaving only Lilly and Ronnie alive as the episode concluded.
The episode’s concluding scenes, helmed by Muschietti, were both graphic and startling. These moments also implied that, regardless of what *Welcome to Derry* plans for its subsequent seven episodes, the creators aim to avoid making viewers feel they are merely watching a reiteration of the *IT* films—or, perhaps more crucially, that they have any foresight into upcoming plot developments.