Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey recently haunted theaters (after the evil toy’s Instagram page made clear that it has been watching us), Mike Flanagan’s The Life Of Chuck is coming later this year, Edgar Wright’s The Running Man reboot is in the works, and The Institute series is en route to MGM+.
In short, everything is coming up Stephen King, and the world hasn’t yet experienced the It: Welcome To Derry series, so let’s talk about what to expect when Pennywise the Clown and his red balloons show up.
Cast
The most important “get” of this cast, of course, is Bill Skarsgård coming back as Pennywise, hence the “It” that invaded the title previously publicized as Welcome To Derry. Originally, this return wasn’t set in stone, but as the Nosferatu star clarified to Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast (via CBR), he changed course due to Andy and Barbara Muschietti being in charge:
“I felt like I was done with it, in a way. It was also because … I was doing Orlok, and, to me, it felt like, ‘This is the nail in the coffin of my monster roles.’ Pun intended … So I did feel I was kind of over it and wanted to do different things. The Pennywise thing as well, I’ve been quite defined by it. Like, that’s 26-year-old me, I’m not still a young man .. [but the Muschetti’s are] very close friends. Family, even. I’m the godfather of his son. I love them. So, alright, let’s bring him back.”
Horowitz further asked of this series, “Is It as scary as the films, do you go as far? Can you go as far as he did in the films?” And Skarsgård responded, “Oh, it’s …. [nods] yeah. It’s pretty hardcore, man.” To which Horowitz joked, “Not G-rated Pennywise?” The answer: “No, that would be a no.”
Bill further told SFX Magazine/Games Radar that he had no problem sliding back into the clown makeup. “I don’t know why, but Pennywise is very accessible for me. He’s so defined, he’s sort of dormant but very easily activated,” he added while promising, “We explored things that we haven’t explored in the movies … I hope the fans are excited.”
Thus far, HBO hasn’t revealed any updated looks at Pennywise, but this video short does tease balloons.
The series also co-stars Taylour Paige, Madeleine Stowe, Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, Stephen Rider, James Remar, Alixandra Fuchs, and BJ Harrison.
Plot
Constant Readers know that Derry has been the setting of more than a handful of King novels (including one that recently destroyed me, Insomnia) and mentioned in others (Dolores Claiborne). These books make clear that evil is infused into Derry’s bedrock, and much of the terror can be traced to the sewer, which is where It (most commonly taking the form of King’s demonic clown) lurks while taunting children. It also spawned a miniseries starring Tim Curry and exists as a pair of movies from Andy Muschetti, who created this TV prequel series along with his sister, Barbara. Together, they will adapt parts of King’s It novel that haven’t surfaced onscreen yet.
All indications are that the series promises “heart, humor, humanity, and horror” as Pennywise makes an appearance in the 1960s (keeping with his 27-year dormancy period) to begins his first onscreen tour of terror. That isn’t the first time that he hit Derry, however, and this series will also pop back to the 1930s when the Black Spot nightclub burns down in the book. (That portion of the story will cover the Mike Hanlon-focused interludes within the It novel). Other interludes will fill in more lore, as the Muschettis told EW:
“This is a book we love a lot, and we felt that there was still a lot of story to be covered. “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.”
For the moment, HBO is keeping Pennywise out of the direct line of sight with these images:
Release Date
After years of production (and strike interruptions), the original Halloween-ish 2024 release window pushed back to 2025 without further specification (yet). At least we know that nine episodes should be worth the delays.
Trailer
A brief glimpse of Welcome To Derry footage appears after the 1:00 mark in the below sizzle reel.
