Copyright Gizmodo
By now, Stephen King’s It needs no introduction. The 1986 novel was a best-seller; the Andy Muschietti movies, released in 2017 and 2019, were hits; and the 1990 miniseries starring Tim Curry is a cult classic. Pennywise has a burnished place in the horror villain hall of fame; others may come close, but there’s no scarier clown in the genre. Into this well-worn territory wades HBO’s It: Welcome to Derry, a prequel to Muschietti’s films that turns the clock back 27 years, in keeping with Pennywise’s visitation cycle, exploring the small town of Derry, Maine, in 1962. There are also a handful of flashbacks to even earlier eras across the first five episodes (of eight total), which io9 viewed for the purposes of this spoiler-free review. It falls on Welcome to Derry’s creators—executive producer Andy Muschietti, who also directs several episodes; executive producer Barbara Muschietti; and executive producers Brad Caleb Kane and Jason Fuchs, who are also co-showrunners and writers—to balance “stuff we already know” (which is a lot, including the fact that Pennywise survives for multiple future cycles) and “new stuff,” bringing in fresh characters and drama that makes it worth spending more time within Derry’s grim borders. “Grim” might not be a strong enough word. In keeping with the classic small towns that populate King’s writing, Derry is wholesome at first glance—but it doesn’t take much for the ugliness to start poking through. Some of that is due to Pennywise’s malevolent influence, which has both physical and psychological effects on the population. People are meaner, more short-tempered. It feels like at any given moment, something awful might happen—because it often does. And some of that is exacerbated by Welcome to Derry’s early-1960s setting. Even in relatively progressive Maine, the racism that the concurrent civil rights movement was fighting against still shows its face, and Cold War unease, especially nuclear fears, is present everywhere. There are also more intimate small-town cruelties, including abusive parents and teenage mean girls, that underline the fact that It’s dominating theme of the loss of innocence isn’t solely down to supernatural causes. As we’ve seen in previous It-adjacent works, the young cast is the central focus of Welcome to Derry’s story. The show’s jaw-dropping first scene—the opening moments of which take place in a movie theater, where the 1962 hit The Music Man warns us in no uncertain terms that “we’ve got trouble”—establishes that shocking things can and will happen. That carries through the entire pilot episode, which lets the viewer know in no uncertain terms that there is no mercy to be found here. The original story, of course, brings back the young characters as adults in its second half. Welcome to Derry doesn’t have that safety net. We don’t know who’ll make it through. With a tense tone punctuated by moments of brutal chaos locked into place, Welcome to Derry sets about introducing the various plots that will interweave throughout the season. And there are a lot competing for attention, even in an eight-part series with episodes that average just under an hour each. Dead center are the awkward misfits of Derry High School who form a sort of proto-Losers Club friend group. The young actors are tasked with a lot of emotional heavy lifting as Pennywise targets them one by one, and unfortunately some have stronger chops than others. That said, Blake James, as confirmed science geek Will Hanlon, is a standout among the kid cast, and the adult performers are across-the-board excellent. The Hanlons are new in town—Major Leroy Hanlon (3 Body Problem‘s Jovan Adepo) has just been transferred to the nearby Air Force base, with his family, including wife Charlotte (The Toxic Avenger‘s Taylour Paige) in tow—and their rapid-fire immersion in Derry’s unique environment helps give all the storylines a common anchor. (Their last name also links them to future Losers Club member Mike Hanlon.) Major Hanlon is recruited into a top-secret intelligence scheme cooked up by General Shaw (Dexter‘s James Remar), the wild details of which we won’t reveal here, other than that it is geographically specific to Derry and also involves an airman named Dick Hallorann (Gotham‘s Chris Chalk). If you’re at all familiar with King’s work, you know Hallorann brings some unique skills to the table—and that he, like Pennywise, is just about the only character we can assume will survive, since we know he’s needed in The Shining. Other key players include Ingrid (12 Monkeys‘ Madeleine Stowe), who works at Derry’s Juniper Hill Asylum; Derry’s police chief, Clint Bowers (The Expanse‘s Peter Outerbridge); a secondhand-shop owner named Rose (Outer Range‘s Kimberly Guerrero); and Hank Grogan (Luke Cage‘s Stephen Rider), a single dad whose life takes a seriously sideways turn. Of all the new characters, Rose is the most fascinating. A member of Derry’s Indigenous community, she has unique insight into the area’s history, bringing deeper context to the events not just of Welcome to Derry but also the It movies and novel. Previously, our lens on Derry’s resident monster was mostly concentrated on the Losers Club; we watched them confront Pennywise as kids, then struggle to recall the experiences that slipped away when they left Derry behind. By contrast, Welcome to Derry digs into the impact Pennywise has had on the land going back generations, drawing on flashbacks from King’s novel but also exploring new aspects of Derry’s legacy of evil. As the force behind that evil, Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) makes his presence known right from the start, though Muschietti and company wisely hold back on the big reveal until a moment when it makes maximum impact. You know what Pennywise looks like, and you know he’s coming, but it’s still terrifying when he appears. But even with a toothy clown waiting in the wings, Welcome to Derry’s most frightening aspects might be its moments of real-world anxiety—heightened by Pennywise’s ambient bad vibes, of course, but still taking place outside the realm of the supernatural. On her first stroll down Derry’s main street, Charlotte Hanlon—a born activist, though her husband would really prefer she didn’t make waves—can’t stop herself from getting between a group of bullies and their hapless target. It’s not long before she realizes this picturesque place has its share of unpleasant problems. Elsewhere, high schooler Lilly (Clara Stack), already tagged with the nickname “Loony Lilly” thanks to her mental health struggles, is threatened with a return to Juniper Hill by adults who’d rather exploit her fragility than protect her from more harm. General Shaw’s big plan is also quite plainly extremely faulty. He’s not a villain by any means, but he’s pointing in a misguided direction, and he has worrisome amounts of power backing him up. And, as we watch Hallorann and his peers excitedly fix up an abandoned building near the base—a much-needed clubhouse of sorts where Black soldiers can gather and let off steam—certain salient pieces come into focus. If you’ve seen the It movies or read the book, you know what this place is and what’s going to happen there. But even if you’re completely unaware, the dread oozing off the screen is inescapable. Welcome to Derry indeed. It: Welcome to Derry premieres October 26 on HBO. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
