News It: Welcome to Derry Welcome to Derry, Don’t Trust Any Creepily Smiling Adults Pennywise is back in the trailer for this prequel to It. By Molly Templeton | Published on May 20, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share To be honest, I did not trust the child in the opening sequence of this trailer for It: Welcome to Derry. What kind of kid is hitchhiking in a creepy night in Maine, where Stephen King has taught us that terrible things happen? Well, one that wants to get the hell out of Derry. Fair enough, kid. It: Welcome to Derry is HBO Max’s prequel series to the It movies, and was developed by the folks behind said movies, including director Andy Muschietti, producer Barbara Muschietti, and actor/co-producer Jason Fuchs. HBO Max does not want to tell us a thing about it, other than that it is based on King’s novel and set in the same world as the movies. But last fall, Andy Muschietti told Entertainment Weekly: 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. In the small down of Derry, everything looks quaint and tidy, but it seems like living there actually sucks. In the trailer, a Black family moves to town and immediately gets the cold shoulder from their white neighbors. The adults smile like, well, like they’re in that movie Smile. (Who’s worse, the cop or the girl in the shop window? Just kidding: It’s definitely the cop.) Something in the pipes is talking. A disproportionately large number of children seem to have gone missing (not sure if that counts the young hitchhiker). And, yes, there’s a terrifying clown in the sewers. Bill Skarsgård returns to the role of Pennywise for this series; the trailer offers only a brief glimpse of him, but it’s enough. It: Welcome to Derry also stars Taylour Paige, Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, James Remar, Stephen Rider, Madeleine Stowe, and Rudy Mancuso. Jason Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane (Warrior, Black Sails) are co-showrunners. You can visit Derry sometime this fall; no specific date has been announced.[end-mark] The post Welcome to Derry, Don’t Trust Any Creepily Smiling Adults appeared first on Reactor.