IT Prequel Series Welcome to Derry Just Took a Big Step Forward

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Stephen King's IT is a beloved story among horror fans, largely because it only teases at a much larger mythology that haunts the town of Derry, Maine, with the upcoming HBO Max series Welcome to Derry having officially launched its writers' room. At this rate, it's unknown when the series could start shooting, though if it heads into production at any point this year, it could debut sometime in 2023. Understandably, it could prove to be perfect timing for Welcome to Derry to make its premiere on the streaming platform just in time for next year's Halloween season. 

Writer Shelley Meals shared on Twitter, "First day of WELCOME TO DERRY writers room! We float down here." The tweet also included a creepy photo from the offices of the series featuring the ominous red balloon that was known to lure children to become victims of Pennywise.

The series is said to be taking place in the 1960s, prior to The Losers Club establishing their friendship, and will also explore the origins of the demonic Pennywise. Given that the monster was said to emerge every 27 years, that leaves decades of stories to explore in the series and how the monster's violence went unstopped for so long.

Despite King himself taking an active involvement in a number of adaptations of his stories over the years, the author recently confirmed that he's not involved in Welcome to Derry and likely won't write any more stories involving the characters.

"Well, I don't have a relationship to Pennywise now," King shared with The Losers Club podcast. "Because I have no intention of going back to IT... it's in the hands of people who are doing this... Andy and Barbara [Muschietti] are going to do Welcome to Derry, they're talking about it anyway. And they've got sort of a handshake deal, I think, with HBO Max."

Even if he's not directly involved in that project, the author is seemingly as excited as fans are.

"It's an interesting possibility to do that. They talked about a prequel. Which struck me as an okay idea," the author recalled. "I'd love to see what Pennywise was up to 27 years before the '50s. Or, I guess it would be the '80s, because they updated the [setting]. So it would be, you know, before World War II or something. It'll be interesting to see what will happen with that."

Stay tuned for details on Welcome to Derry.

Are you looking forward to the new series? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

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