- An It spin-off series is in the works
- It will feature the return of Pennywise the Clown
- Movie director Andy Muschietti returns to direct
No, this isn’t some kind of waking nightmare – an It prequel spin-off series really is heading our way in the form of It: Welcome to Derry.
Inspired by author Stephen King’s lofty 1986 novel It, this new series will be a prequel sharing DNA with the recent film adaptations by director Andy Muschietti.
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The show was originally announced in Early 2022 under the working title Welcome To Derry. Constant readers of King’s work will recognise this fictional spot as the place where many of his horrors happen in or near. Derry formed the backdrop for Muschietti’s recent movies It and It: Part 2. With It: Welcome To Derry, audiences will soon be invited back there once more.
As if that wasn’t enough, another familiar face will return to bring perhaps Derry’s most enduring nightmare to life once again. That’s right: despite the Losers Club’s best efforts, it looks like we haven’t seen the last of Pennywise the Dancing Clown – in flashback form at least.
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With big plans set out for the show, it’s probably time we figured out when and where we can see it. Read on for everything you need to know about this hotly-anticipated series.
When is It: Welcome to Derry released?
Just like Pennywise, we don’t know exactly when It: Welcome to Derry will appear as its release date hasn’t been confirmed. That said, it is expected to arrive at some point in 2025.
When the show is ready to be aired, audiences will find it on HBO. This wasn’t always the plan. Originally, It: Welcome To Derry was designed to debut on the streaming service HBO Max. Things changed in the summer of 2024.
The show has been written by Muscheitti, his producing partner and sister Barbara and writer Jason Fuchs. Muscheitti will direct four episodes including the show’s pilot.
Who is starring in the show?
Quite a few different names have been confirmed to appear in It: Welcome to Derry. However, we don’t know who most of them are playing.
Firstly, fans will likely be pleased to discover that Bill Skarsgård is reprising his role as Pennywise the Clown. He’ll also act as the show’s Executive Producer. Skarsgård played King’s iconic demonic entity in both parts of Muschietti’s movie adaptation.
At first, it wasn’t clear whether Skarsgård would return. Thankfully, the actor’s involvement was eventually confirmed in May 2024.
The show will also star Babylon and Fences actor Jovan Adepo as Will Hanlon. Readers of King’s novel will recognize the name; he’s the father of the Losers Club’s resident Derry historian Mike Hanlon.
Elsewhere, we have lots of names but little character detail. Skarsgård and Adepo will be joined by Gotham’s Chris Chalk, Zola’s Taylor Paige, The Warriors James Rear and Daredevil’s Stephen Rider.
The show will also feature an extensive recurring cast which includes Chad Rock, Madeleine Stowe, Alexandra Fuchs, Dean Cool, Kimberly Guerrero, Tyler Rushing, BJ Harrison, Shane Marriot, Dorian Grey, Thomas Mitchell, Joshua Odjick, Rudy Mancuso, Morningstar Angeline and Peter Outerbridge.
Is there a trailer for It: Welcome to Derry?
Unfortunately, we don’t have a full trailer for It: Welcome To Derry. We don’t even have a teaser trailer. However, a few short snippets from the show were glimpsed in a special trailer released by HBO MAX teasing their upcoming slate of projects.
Hit play on the video above and you’ll find the It: Welcome to Derry section at the 1.26 minute mark. For a few brief seconds, we see members of the show’s young cast report sightings of a clown.
Let’s be honest: spotting a mysterious clown rarely ends well for anyone.
What is the plot?
It: Welcome to Derry is a prequel series set before the events of Muschietti’s It movies. These were based in the 1980s and modern day whereas King’s original story was set slightly earlier, following a group of children battling It in the 1950s and again in the 1980s as adults.
According to Muschietti, the series will explore some of the moments of King’s story where research was conducted around Derry and its history of evil clown sightings. Much of this was done by the character Mike Hanlon.
“This is a book we love a lot, and we felt that there was still a lot of story to be covered,” Muschietti and his producing partner and sister told Entertainment Weekly in late 2024.
“It’s so rich with characters and events, we thought we would do justice to the book and the fans by going back into this world. Specifically, we are telling the stories of the interludes, writings by Mike Hanlon based on his investigation that includes interviews he conducts with the older people in the town.
“In Welcome to Derry, we touch on the usual themes that were talked about in the movie — friendship, loss, the power of unified belief — but this story focuses also on the use of fear as a weapon, which is one of the things that is also relevant to our times.”
How many episodes will It: Welcome to Derry have?
It: Welcome to Derry will consist of nine episodes. At this stage, we don’t have any details of their run time or if they’ll be released all in one go or weekly.
How many seasons of It: Welcome To Derry are there?
Even though It: Welcome To Derry hasn’t debuted yet plans are already in the works for more seasons of the show.
During an interview conducted in early 2025, Muschietti confirmed that additional seasons will take place in different time periods.
“It’s a story that’s based on the interludes of the book. The interludes are basically chapters that reflect Mike Hanlon’s research. They’re fragments of his research. For 27 years, it’s the guy trying to figure out what it is, what did it, who did it, who saw it, and all that stuff,” explained the director.
“So they talk about catastrophic events from the past, like the fire in the Black Spot… the massacre of the Bradley Gang, a gang of bank robbers in the ’30s… and the explosion of the Kitchener Ironworks… Every time [Pennywise] comes out of hibernation, there is a catastrophic event that happens at the beginning of that cycle.
“There’s a reason why the story is told backwards. So the first season is 1962, the second season is 1935, and the third season is 1908.”
Of course, this plan is dependent on the first season of It: Welcome To Derry being a success.
