HBO has added Rudy Mancuso to the cast of Welcome to Derry, a prequel series to Stephen King‘s IT, which will bring back Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise. As with the literally ten people who were cast last week, details of Mancuso’s character are currently unknown. The star’s latest project is Música, for which he also served as writer, director and composer. Previously, he appeared in projects like Rim of the World and Drunk History. Last year, he played Albert Desmond in The Flash, which was directed by Welcome to Derry executive producer Andy Muschietti.
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Mancuso is also a musician and comedian who got his start on the YouTube channel Awkward Puppets. Deadline first announced his trip to Derry.
Last week, reports emerged that Warner Bros. Discovery will rebrand Welcome to Derry — as well as DC’s Lanterns an a number of other upcoming projects based on popular IP — from Max originals to HBO Originals, and plans to air them to the beloved cable network. It’s the latest in a series of moves by WBD management seemingly aimed at marginalizing the importance of the streaming platform to the company’s overall business plan.
HBO Max was the brainchild of the previous ownership, and since Discovery bought Warner Bros., it seems like they have been chipping away at the platform slowly. Adding Discovery content drowned out some of the more popular WB stuff, and rebranding to “Max,” removing any ties to the wildly popular HBO, was widely mocked. Along the way, WBD removed or cancelled a number of digital-only projects, most notably the nearly-completed Batgirl and Scoob!: Holiday Haunt.
In addition to reprising his role from the movies, Skarsgård will reunite with filmmakers Andy and Barbara Muschietti and producers Jason Fuchs, Roy Lee and Dan Lin. They and Skarsgård will all serve as producers on the series, which was developed for television by Skarsgård, the Muschiettis, and Fuchs. Andy Muschietti, who directed the two IT movies, will helm four of the series’ nine episodes.
Welcome to Derry is set in King’s fictional town of Derry, Maine that Pennywise terrorized for generations. It will take place decades before the events of IT. In the novel and original TV adaptation, the earliest events of the story unfold in the late ’50s, though in the two-part film adaptation of the story, the timeline shifted to the ’80s and 2010s. With Welcome to Derry set to be an extension of those films, the new series looks to take place in the ’50s to explore bizarre events in the town that pre-dated the story we already know.
There is no known release window for Welcome to Derry yet, and in fact it’s possible the show’s title could change before the trailer drops, as every report has referred to Welcome to Derry as a working title.
