Andy Muschietti has revealed his three-season plan for the upcoming prequel series Welcome to Derry, which follows Bill Skarsgard's Pennywise.
“It's a story that builds on the interludes of the book. The interludes are basically chapters that reflect Mike Hanlon's research. They're fragments of his research. For 27 years, he's the guy trying to figure out what he is, what he did, who did it. did, who saw it and all that,” Muschietti told Radio Tu during a live interview, translated by Bloody Disgusting.
“So they talk about catastrophic events in the past, like the Black Spot fire… the massacre of the Bradley Gang, a gang of bank robbers in the '30s… and the Kitchener Ironworks explosion,” the filmmaker continues. “Every time [Pennywise] comes out of hibernation, there is a catastrophic event that happens at the beginning of that cycle. “We are basing all three seasons of this series on each of these catastrophic events.”
Muschietti added: “The first season is 1962, the second season is 1935 and the third season is 1908.”
The series takes place 27 years before the events of the first It film and explores the origins of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Skarsgard reprises his role from the Muschietti films, with a cast that includes Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, Taylour Paige, James Remar and Stephen Rider.
Muschietti also touched on the addition of Pennywise iconography to the year 1908 and delving into historical inaccuracies in films like Gladiator and how viewers respond. (Fortunately, balloons were invented in 1824.) The director also acknowledged that, in the original novel, Pennywise's true form is revealed to be a spider, which we see in the original It miniseries from 1990. Pennywise becomes a hybrid of clown spider in Muschietti's It: Chapter 2, but not the literal man-sized spider we see in the original series. It remains to be seen if the show will uncover his true origins as a spider.
Welcome to Derry is coming to Max sometime in 2025. For more, check out our list of the best new TV shows coming in 2025 and beyond, or check out guides to the best Max TV shows and the best Max movies to add to your streaming queue.