It feels like it was just yesterday that Francis Lawrence’s The Long Walk was arriving in theaters – but that new Stephen King movie is now available on digital for home viewing, and we’re just days away from the next 2025 adaptation: IT: Welcome To Derry. The prequel series is set to debut its pilot this Sunday on HBO (with simultaneous launch for HBO Max subscribers), and it’s the launch of an expansive vision imagined by creators Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs that hopes to span three seasons. It’s not exactly the most obvious vision, however, and even Stephen King was apparently a touch perplexed when it was first presented to him.
That story from my recent interview with Andy and Barbara Muschietti headlines this week’s edition of The King Beat, but with the review embargo now being up for IT: Welcome To Derry, I can also share that I have seen the first five episodes of the eight episode run, and you’ll find my mini review of the new horror series below as well. There’s a lot to get into, so let’s dig in!
One doesn’t need an advanced degree to understand why prequels are tricky business: as challenging as it is to tell a compelling story, it’s even more challenging when the audience comes equipped with a general idea of what’s on the way in the future of the canon. There are no stakes in a 1950-set plot threatening global nuclear annihilation if people already know that human society is doing just fine in 2025.
It’s this that makes the big picture plan for IT: Welcome To Derry so unusual. With Season 1 set in 1962 following the 1989-set IT: Chapter One and the 2016-set IT: Chapter Two, the show exists in the big picture as a prequel, but what’s notable is that subsequent seasons will be going backward in time: Season 2 will take place in 1935, and Season 3 will go back to 1908. That means the latter will be a prequel to a prequel to a prequel… and if that sounds messy, you might understand why Stephen King was “mystified” by the plan when it was first presented to him.
That word was the one that Andy Muschietti used when I spoke to him and his sister/filmmaking partner Barbara during the recent IT: Welcome To Derry press day. I asked about Stephen King’s direct involvement in the creative process making the show, and the co-creator/director/producer explained that the author doesn’t just rubber stamp adaptations. He said that King doesn’t hesitate to question certain ideas and deliver honest feedback – and that includes the broad vision for the timeline. Said Muschietti,
I think he was very pleased about our general intention. Of course, he always spoke out when there was something that didn’t quite like match to his expectations. But in general, he was very, very pleased and excited about us completing the puzzle and creating stories that validate all the things that happen – but also building towards something that is more substantial at the end. I think he was mystified by the idea that we’re also telling the story backwards.
For those of you not in the know/need the reminder, Pennywise resurfaces from hibernation every 27 years, emerging to feast on fear in the hunting grounds that is Derry, Maine, and that’s why the settings for each season are so specific. And while the timeline is different than what is featured in Stephen King’s epic novel, the show is adapting stories and key events that play out in the book’s “Interludes,” which consist of research that Mike Hanlon does into the dark history of his home town.
To loop back to the prequel problem, the existence of the IT movies means that we all know that Pennywise is not going to be “defeated” at any point in the three season span of IT: Welcome To Derry, and that’s an issue that will grow exponentially. The reverse timeline also means that the show will have to operate like an anthology, introducing a whole new collection of characters with each run (instead of catching up with the same ensemble of protagonists 27 years later, as we see in IT: Chapter One and Chapter Two).
So why navigate this treacherous creative path? Andy Muschietti assures us that there is a method to the madness, and audiences will be gifted with a clue to what’s going on when we get to the season finale. The filmmaker continued,
There is a very specific reason; we can’t reveal it now because it explains itself over the course of the three seasons, but there’s a very specific reason why we’re telling the story backwards. It’s hinted at the end of Season 1, so people, pay attention. But [Stephen King], in general, he was very, very supportive and very excited about what we were doing, not from a point of trying to control his work, more like, again, very curious about what we we’re doing within his sandbox.
How successful is the show at executing its mission to “complete the puzzle” and play within the sandbox of the canon? I’ll put it this way…
Mini Review: In A Year Packed With Terrific Stephen King Adaptations, IT: Welcome To Derry Is The Greatest Surprise Yet
Back in late May, the first full trailer for IT: Welcome To Derry arrived online, and it concerned me a bit – to the point that I headlined that week’s edition of The King Beat “Thrilled As I Am For The Return Of Pennywise, The IT: Welcome To Derry Trailer Makes Me Worry About The Stephen King Series.” My consternation was pretty simple: with the marketing focusing on the younger members of the show’s ensemble, I wondered if the plot involving the foundation of The Black Spot was going to be overshadowed (echoing my biggest problem with the structure of IT: Chapter Two.)
Having now seen the first five episodes, I can tell you now that my concerns have proven to be unnecessary anxiety, as IT: Welcome To Derry is a balanced and fucked up delight. It not only wonderfully expands the canon from the IT movies but is also overflowing with love for the grander Stephen King universe – going well-beyond just what’s in the author’s 1986 horror opus and including a number of amazing surprises.
The show is loaded up with various references and Easter eggs (be on the lookout here on the site after each episode airs for features recounting all of the ones that we catch), but neither feels like fan service overload nor does it just repeat all of the tricks from the IT movies. The horrible antics of the titular monster is at the core of everything on the show, but from that nucleus it spawns four equally compelling plotlines that are constantly evolving in huge ways.
Putting aside the storytelling, the series also happens to be delightfully horrifying – regularly unfurling nightmares that will have even the most desensitized viewers trying to melt into their couch. As I noted in King Beat earlier this month, Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise The Dancing Clown is only teased through the first few episodes, but the entity’s awful gift for shapeshifting is brilliantly and creatively utilized. There is no shortage of sequences that will have audiences yelping, the production making outstanding use of both practical and visual effects.
As a whole, the ensemble cast of IT: Welcome To Derry is tremendous, and while I’ll dance around spoilers to highlight the standouts, the great scene-stealers are Taylour Page, Chris Chalk and Clara Stack. Page and Chalk aren’t prominent in the pilot (the former actually doesn’t arrive on the show until the second episode), but Charlotte Hanlon – the wife of Jovan Adepo’s Leroy Hanlon – possesses a remarkable fierceness that renders her a special new weapon for justice in the town of Derry, and his Dick Hallorann offers fascinating exploration of the memorable character from The Shining and Doctor Sleep.
Stack plays Lilly Bainbridge, a girl introduced recovering from two recent tragedies (the death of her father and the disappearance of a friend), and the mix of pain, fear, and steadfastness that the actress incorporates into the part makes her the highlight of the show’s kid-centric plot.
Stephen King fans have already been heavily spoiled thus far in 2025, with the weakest of the four previously released titles merely being mediocre rather than bad (MGM+’s The Institute), but IT: Welcome To Derry is another big win for the author’s legacy in film and television, and it advances the argument that this is the best year ever for King adaptations.
That brings us to the end of this week’s edition of The King Beat, but fret not: in addition to planning another new column next Thursday, the coming days and weeks will also feature a whole lot of stories from my interviews with the filmmakers and cast of IT: Welcome To Derry –including Andy and Barbara Muschietti; co-showrunners Jason Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane; and stars Jovan Adepo, Taylour Paige, James Remar, Kimberly Guerrero, Chris Chalk, and Stephen Rider. Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend!