Tonight marks the premiere of HBO’s new prequel series “IT: Welcome to Derry,” a spin-off of the “IT” two-film adaptation of the Stephen King novel.
The story unfolds in the early 1960s, in the period before Pennywise goes into hibernation and re-emerges in the 1980s in the first film. The key difference here is that the action is spread across eight episodes rather than two films.
Bill Skarsgård reprises his role as Pennywise the Clown from the films, with the show being executive produced by the film’s director Andy Muschietti and his producer/sister Barbara Muschietti – ensuring it should feel in line with the movies.
Key to that will be how much, or rather how little, Pennywise is seen. While Pennywise is IT’s favourite guise, it’s far from the only one, with the creature capable of causing hallucinations and appearing as other things.
Speaking with THR, the Muschiettis say they are quite restrained with showing Pennywise early on, keeping the clown mostly under wraps over the first few episodes – even as the creature’s presence is in there from the get-go:
Andy: “We did ‘less is more’ for half the show, but then we did ‘more is more’. The idea behind the delayed appearance is the buildup of expectation. The audience doesn’t know that they want it, but I think it creates a very special feeling. When and where the clown is going to appear was a game that I wanted to play with the audience.
Barbara: Being a shape-shifter, Pennywise looms large. If you dissect the movies, Pennywise is not in the movies that much, but people feel IT a lot when he is on camera. The last thing we want is to have an audience get comfortable with Pennywise. We don’t want anybody to get used to his image. He’s unpredictable. He strikes whenever he feels like it.
Andy: And normally, the misconception is that IT can only be one thing, one creature at a time. But it’s part of the canon, even in the book, that he creates hallucinations. He creates collective creatures – like when he became the piranha, right? That’s a flock of creatures.
Jason Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane serve as co-showrunners on the series, which has received quite good reviews so far. Taylour Paige, Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, James Remar, Stephen Rider, Madeleine Stowe, and Rudy Mancuso star in the show that will air weekly through December 14th.
Additionally HBO Max has announced that the second episode will screen early – arriving on the streamer on Halloween.
