While most of It: Welcome To Derry season 2’s characters will be new, there is one exciting season 1 star who will return alongside Bill Skarsgard’s terrifying It villain Pennywise. While all of the It movies and TV shows have their moments, It: Welcome To Derry still stands out as a strikingly strong addition to the franchise. Unlike 1990’s miniseries and the two-part movie re-imagining of Stephen King’s novel, 2017’s It and 2019’s It: Chapter Two, this HBO show had no source material to directly adapt.
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This meant that the prequel could have been a complete disaster or, at the very least, nowhere near as strong as the two movies that preceded it. Fortunately, from the return of Bill Skarsgard’s version of Pennywise to the sharp social commentary of the series, It: Welcome To Derry turned out to be more than just an adequate follow-up to the It movies. The ‘60s-set horror show was arguably even better than the original movies, featuring more intense scares and deeper character work thanks to its longer runtime.
Ingrid Kersh Has To Appear In It: Welcome To Derry Season 2
Unfortunately, part of what made It: Welcome To Derry so ingenious also makes the show’s next outing uniquely challenging. According to the horror franchise’s lore, Pennywise the Dancing Clown attacked the town of Derry once every 27 years until the grown-up version of the Losers Club finally defeated the evil entity for good. This means It: Welcome To Derry season 1 couldn’t cover the events of It: Chapter Two’s 2016-set story, nor could it cover Pennywise’s previous attack, which was already seen in 2017’s It.
Instead, It: Welcome To Derry went back to the ‘60s, and shocked viewers by introducing Madeleine Stowe’s Ingrid Kersh, an unhinged middle-aged woman who believes Pennywise is her father. An accomplice to It: Welcome To Derry’s Pennywise, Kersh goes on to become the monstrous, demonic elderly woman whom an adult Beverly visits at her Derry apartment home in It: Chapter 2.
Kersh is a fascinating character, not least because her belief that Pennywise is her father isn’t entirely delusional. Her real father was the circus entertainer Bob Gray, and he was a loving single parent who was proud of her plan to follow in his footsteps. However, when Gray became one of Its rare adult victims, the monster seemingly consumed his identity and gained the ability to appear as him. This allowed Pennywise to manipulate Kersh by pretending to be Gray, leading her to feed him victims in season 1 flashbacks from 1935.
It: Welcome To Derry Season 2’s Ingrid Kersh Story Could Be Even Sadder
Since It: Welcome To Derry season 2 is set to go back another 27 years to focus on Pennywise’s last feeding session before the ‘60s, this means viewers are bound to see more of Kersh’s exploits at the Juniper Hill Asylum. This plot has plenty of potential, since, although Kersh’s decision to sacrifice child patients to Pennywise is horrifying, her confusion over whether the entity really is her father’s spirit is tragic.
Most of the victims that Pennywise manipulates in It are deeply flawed people like the violent teenage sociopath Henry Bowers, so the audience rarely gets a chance to empathise with the monster’s human lackeys. However, Kersh’s It: Welcome To Derry season 2 story could change this, as she might become the first genuinely kind, well-meaning character to be hoodwinked by It’s infamous monster.
Which It: Welcome To Derry characters would you like to see again in season 2? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum
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