Stephen King's book IT, about a child-eating clown called Pennywise who terrorizes the small town of Derry on and off for decades, has been terrifying people ever since it first hit bookshelves in 1986. More recently, Andy Muschietti directed a pair of movies based on IT that did quite well at the box office, well enough for HBO to greenlight a show set in Derry, decades before the events of the main story. It's called IT: Welcome to Derry.
Normally I'd say this sounds like HBO is stretching, but two things make me optimistic: first, IT is an enormous book, and there probably is enough in there to base a show on. Welcome to Derry will be based on the "interludes" throughout the book, when one of the main characters, Mike Hanlon, investigates incidents in Derry's past where Pennywise crawled out of his hole to wreck havoc, whipping the town into a murderous frenzy he can feast on. Based on images HBO has just released, it looks like the show will revolve around an incident involving the Black Spot, a hangout spot that catered to Black customers in Derry back in the 1930s. With some nudging from Pennywise, the members of the Maine Legion of White Decency attack the Black Spot in an burst of racial violence, which Pennywise loves.
HBO hasn't revealed which cast members are playing which characters, but based on these pictures, it looks like Jovan Adepo will be playing a young Will Hanlon, Mike Hanlon's father, and Taylour Paige will play Will's future wife Jessica:
Other cast members Chris Chalk, James Remar, Stephen Rider, Madeleine Stowe and Rudy Mancuso. And although he's not pictured here, Bill Skarsgård will be reprising his role from the movies as Pennywise the Dancing Clown.
Like in the original IT, there will also be a bunch of younger characters, children being one of Pennywise's favorite meals; their fear is more pure and therefore tasty, apparently. HBO mostly hasn't revealed the names of the child actors, but we do have some pictures.
As you may be able to tell from the clothes and hairstyles, IT: Welcome to Derry is not set in the 1930s. Instead, the incident at the Black Spot will be moved up to the 1960s, much as the events of the book were moved forward 30 years for the recent movies. "It’s a different part of American history with a new set of fears for children, as well as adults having in mind the cost of the Cold War," Muschietti told Entertainment Weekly. "Our baseline is 1962, but we do a few jumps to the past.... Every 27 years when It appears, It’s cycle is marked by two catastrophic events, one at the beginning and one in the end. We are using the Black Spot as an event in which many stories are built around."
I mentioned earlier that there were two reasons I was feeling optimistic about this show. The second is that HBO has been doing a good job lately taking major IPs and turning them into compelling television. Last year they made a TV version of The Last of Us, one of the biggest video game series from the last several years. Huge success. Right now, they're airing The Penguin, a spinoff of 2022's The Batman about a supporting villain character, and it's great. Pretty soon they're going to air Dune: Prophecy, a show set in the Dune universe, and while I can't give away spoilers, I've gotten to see some of the episodes in advance and that show is really good too!
Basically, HBO seems to have a handle on these big IP shows. I worry that they might get sloppy in the long run — sometimes studios make shows based on big IPs and think the name is enough to carry it — but right now they've earned my trust. I expect IT: Welcome to Derry to continue the trend.
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