The brand new teaser trailer for IT: Welcome to Derry gives us another glimpse at HBO’s impending return to the world of Andy Muschietti’s franchise. Not only is the series connected to the hit movies (2017 and 2019), but it also features the return of Pennywise actor Bill Skarsgård. Here are the nine things you may have missed in the relentless new preview.
Derry in the '60s
While Muschietti’s IT films took place across two primary time periods, the 1980s and the 2010s, those are not the only timeframes that Stephen King’s iconic book covered. Rather, the book was set across the 1950s and the 1980s, as the central hook of the narrative revolves around Pennywise's awakening every 27 years. As such, the series offers a chance for the creatives to return to a more classical setting, this time in the form of 1962.
As the first film’s events took place in 1989, the new ‘60s setting is 27 years prior and looks to chronicle the cycle of violence Pennywise incited prior to the Losers Club taking him on. Thus, audiences get a good look at the setting, which is a good deal more pristine and thriving than it was in 1989.
The Home of Paul Bunyan
One of the characters in the new teaser trailer drives past a billboard that prominently features the visage of Paul Bunyan and the tagline, “The home of Paul Bunyan.”
Bunyan was not only memorably featured in King’s novel, but also in Muschietti’s IT films, most notably when his giant statue attacked a frightened Richie Tozier (Bill Hader) in IT: Chapter Two. The inclusion of this reminder here seems to indicate a noteworthy return for the statue in the upcoming series.
Arrowhead Hotel
Multiple shots in the new teaser feature the Arrowhead Hotel’s signage. The name of the hotel, as well as the shopkeeper that one of the primary characters interacts with, stems from Native American heritage, which is especially of note for the IT franchise.
Franchise elements such as the Ritual of Chüd and a cosmically powered turtle named Maturin are linked directly to elements of Native American heritage. The films never actually got around to incorporating these antics, so this could be a tease that things will get a bit more complicated in Welcome to Derry than audiences are expecting.
Good old fashioned Stephen King bullies
There are many hallmarks of a great King story, as the author has worked in numerous genres and mediums across his multi-generational career. However, chief among them has to be his unique gift for crafting believable, authentic, and genuinely harrowing bullying scenes.
From Carrie and Christine to IT, the author has a penchant for delivering profoundly uncomfortable and invasive bully characters, and a bully-centric beat from the new teaser trailer for Welcome to Derry seems to tease that the show is eager to bring this element into the fold.
The Music Man
The Capital Theater, which was famously showing A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child in the 1989 setting of the first IT film, is seen showing a very different kind of film back in 1962: The Music Man. At first glance, the musical may seem like a strange choice, but a smart editing choice interweaves pieces of cautionary dialogue from an iconic scene in the 1962 film into footage for the rest of the trailer.
The result is a sonic work that twists and distorts the dulcimer tones of nostalgia, speaking to the ways in which the IT franchise functions.
The Jade Orient
One shot in the teaser trailer features signage for the restaurant, the Jade Orient, which is an iconic location for the IT franchise. King’s book featured the restaurant numerous times, most famously in the ‘80s setting when the adult versions of the Losers Club reunite in Derry for the first time. Similarly, IT: Chapter Two adapted this scene practically verbatim for the movies, and made the Jade Orient a memorable cinematic location in its own right.
Research at the library
There are several shots in the teaser of the central batch of children facing off against Pennywise the Dancing Clown, this time around doing research at the local library. This is highly reminiscent of Muschietti’s first IT movie, in which Ben Hanscom (Jeremy Ray Taylor) goes to the library to do his own research. Each sequence features the children of each respective iteration learning more about the history of Derry and the monster they’re facing off against.
Shawshank State Prison
King has long made a habit of interweaving his stories into one another. Long before it was popular to craft intricately interconnected shared universes, he was busy dropping extensive connections across his entire body of work, such as when the Overlook Hotel’s history (from The Shining) became a plot point in the middle of Misery.
Welcome to Derry will follow suit, with a notable reference to the Shawshank State Prison in one shot. This location was previously featured in the much-praised King book and subsequent film adaptation, The Shawshank Redemption.
Pennywise’s lair
One of the most notable inclusions in the teaser is the return to Pennywise’s lair, as depicted in Muschietti’s original IT film. While the preview plays coy, avoiding entirely revealing Skarsgård's return as the antagonistic clown with out-of-focus shots, it does give audiences the full preamble to the character’s return, including a recreation of this iconic locale from the first film.
IT: Welcome to Derry premieres on HBO and HBO Max this October.
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