HBO Max Exec Calls IT Prequel Series "Demented"
After the success of Warner Bros. two IT movies, new adaptations of Stephen King's classic novel, the horror franchise will be shifting to HBO Max for an upcoming TV show. Titled Welcome to Derry, the series has been described as a prequel, largely because as fans recall Pennywise the Clown was finally defeated at the end of IT: Chapter Two. Considering the fact that the entity's presence in the Maine town goes back thousands of years, emerging every 27 years to feed, there's plenty of events that the show can explore and according to one HBO Max exec it's going to include some "demented scares."
"We have been working with Jason Fuchs, Brad Caleb Caine, Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti very closely," Sarah Aubrey HBO Max head of originals told Variety about Welcome to Derry. "They're so deep into this mythology and they have such a firm handle on the storytelling around these characters and also the demented scares that they're putting into things. Sometimes I'm, like, 'What's wrong with you?' Just all the wild ways they think up to terrify us. You'll be hearing more concretely about that development very soon... Andy is very involved in every bit of this, so that is the real recipe for success and for delighting fans."
Welcome to Derry could very well take place across hundreds of years, with the two IT movies previously considering showing some of these moments in the far past within the feature films. As fans know, these scenes were largely cut out of the movie, though teases to Pennywise's previous appearances in the town are teased in old photographs, newspapers, and drawings. A pre-clown version of the creature was even shot for the first IT movie but removed from the final cut of the movie.
"There was a scene we shot that was a flashback from the 1600s, before Pennywise," actor Bill Skarsgård previously revealed to Variety. "The scene turned out really, really disturbing. And I'm not the clown. I look more like myself. It's very disturbing, and sort of a backstory for what It is, or where Pennywise came from."
It's unclear if Skarsgård is in talks to reprise his Pennywise role for the upcoming HBO Max series, but with director Andy Muschietti and producer Barbara Muschietti both working on the show it seems like it could be a possibility.