It: Welcome to Derry premiered on Sunday, October 26 on HBO, already earning rave reviews from fans and spawning an abundance of commentary on the pilot's twist ending, although we won't add to the discourse of there being a *lot* more characters introduced than planned. The show serves as a prequel series to the two movies It (2017) and It Chapter Two (2019), both of which are based on the Stephen King 1986 novel of the same name.
Series creators and siblings Andy and Barbara Muschietti spoke with Variety just hours after the premiere episode dropped on HBO Max, and revealed that they have a plan for the show and telling the story of the titular It, aka Pennywise, one of the horror genre's most iconic villains, that'll extend far beyond just the pilot – three seasons, in fact.
"Our big story arc involves three seasons, mainly based on the three critical cycles of Pennywise, which are 1962, 1935 and 1908," Andy, 52, told the publication. The first season takes place in 1962, 25 years before the events of the 2017 film, and Andy explained that the series takes a "deeper" look inside the events leading up to the horrors inflicted upon Derry, and the history of its townsfolk.
"I went into the book and looked at the interludes," he explained. "I realized there was a hidden story there, and that Stephen King was leaving crumbs that could guide us somewhere. It's a story told backwards." While they didn't explicitly say they had three seasons already slated for the show, Andy did mention that it was the planned intention to get the entire story of Pennywise and Derry through.
© HBOHe addressed some of the other things the show tackles as well, such as Derry's racist past. "Stephen King is a writer who is very sensitive to social injustice. He speaks about the evil of a clown, but he's mainly talking about the evil things that we do to each other as human beings. Most of the horrible things that happen in Derry are man made."
© Getty Images"A lot of us are in a state of alarm," he continued. "There is more awareness and reception to all of these matters because the perils that we thought were gone are back. It blatantly hits home." Another man-made aspect? Easter eggs! "Over the course of these three seasons, we're gonna probably get closer to the meaning of the turtle, how it affects the behavior of our characters and the mythological backstory."
© HBOAlso on the menu? A twist ending involving the main cast of kids set in Derry for the show, although (we won't spoil it for you), that does take a turn very quickly. "It was important for us to tell a very unpredictable story, because we couldn't repeat the movies," Barbara, 53, shared. "We needed the kids, because there's no 'It' without kids, and we needed them to become friends and fight this monster together. But we needed to subvert the story somehow."
© Brooke PalmerIt: Welcome to Derry will return with a new episode every Sunday, starting with episode two, "The Thing in the Dark," dropping on November 2.
