IT: Welcome to Derry Trailer Brings Stephen King Horror to HBO

Derry welcomes you back. On Tuesday, the first teaser trailer for HBO’s IT: Welcome to Derry floated online, offering a haunting look at the It prequel series set decades before 2017’s It and 2019’s It Chapter Two. Taking place in 1962 — 27 years before the Losers Club encountered the cosmic creature Pennywise the Clown (Bill Skarsgård) for the first time in the summer of 1989 — Welcome to Derry expands the world established in Andy Muschietti’s movie adaptations based on author Stephen King’s novel.

Returning to the fictional Derry, Maine, IT: Welcome to Derry explores the tragedy-stained titular town infamous for its unexplained deaths and disappearances. Anchoring the nine-episode HBO series is the burning of The Black Spot, a nightclub burned down by a racist cult in 1962 (1930 in the novel).

“Twenty-seven years is the dormant period of Pennywise,” It producers Andy and Barbara Muschietti, who developed the prequel series for television, told EW. “It’s a different part of American history with a new set of fears for children, as well as adults having in mind the cost of the Cold War. Our baseline is 1962, but we do a few jumps to the past…. Every 27 years when It appears, It’s cycle is marked by two catastrophic events — one at the beginning and one in the end. We are using the Black Spot as an event in which many stories are built around.”

Both the novel and the Muschietti-directed films referenced the fire at the Black Spot, the latest in a series of tragedies that struck Derry: as told by the novel, there were the 340 settlers who vanished without a trace when the Derry Township disappeared in 1741. Then the John Markson family murders in 1851. The Kenduskeag Stream lumberjack hacking of 1879. The Kitchener Ironworks explosion that killed over 100 people on Easter Sunday, 1906. The Bradley Gang Massacre of 1929. (While the Losers Club fought It in 1957 and again in 1985 in the novel, the two films took place in 1989 and in 2016, another 27 years later.)

IT: Welcome to Derry draws from the five interludes in King’s novel (Derry: The First Interlude, Derry: The Second Interlude, Derry: The Third Interlude, Derry: The Fourth Interlude, and Derry: The Last Interlude). The book presents the interlude segments as excerpts from “Derry: An Unauthorized Town History” by Michael Hanlon (portrayed by Chosen Jacobs as a child and Isaiah Mustafa as an adult in the films), who refers to his unpublished work as “Derry: A Look Through Hell’s Back Door.”

The series stars Taylour Paige (Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F), Jovan Adepo (3 Body Problem), Chris Chalk (Perry Mason), James Remar (Black Lightning), Stephen Rider (Daredevil), Madeleine Stowe (Revenge), Rudy Mancuso (The Flash), and Skarsgård, reprising his role from the films as Pennywise. The Muschiettis and Skarsgård executive produce the series with Jason Fuchs (Argylle), Brad Caleb Kane (Crystal Lake), David Coatsworth (Preacher), Shelley Meals (Shadow and Bone), Roy Lee (A Minecraft Movie), and Dan Lin (Godzilla vs. Kong).

IT: Welcome to Derry premieres this summer on HBO and HBO Max.