Pennywise will be back to torment the residents of Derry. According to Deadline, new It prequel series, Welcome to Derry, is in production at HBO Max. Today, it was announced that James Remar (Black Lightning, Magnum P.I.), Taylour Paige (Hit the Floor, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Jovan Adepo (Babylon, Sorry for Your Loss), and Chris Chalk (Perry Mason, Gotham) are set to play the main characters in the show. No character details have been revealed to the public yet.
According to Deadline, the show, which uses the working title Welcome to Derry, will be a Max Original. The series will be written by the franchise filmmakers Andy (Mama, Locke & Key) and Barbara Muschietti (Mama, It) and by Jason Fuchs (Wonder Woman, Pan) who co-produced It Chapter Two. Andy Muschietti will also direct multiple episodes of the show, including the first episode.
It started as a book written by Stephen King (The Shining, Carrie) and has been adapted into multiple movies. The first adaptation came out in 1990 and starred Tim Curry (The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Congo) as the evil clown Pennywise. The most recent adaptation decided to adapt the book into a two-part movie with the first movie coming out in 2017 and the second part coming out in 2019. The prequel show is set to be in the same universe as this recent adaptation. It is still unknown if Bill Skarsgård (John Wick: Chapter 4, Deadpool 2) will return to reprise his role as Pennywise for the show.
The story of It follows a group of kids from a small town who discover that the reason small children keep disappearing, never to be seen again, is a scary clown that is now haunting them. The clown will transform into what they fear the most in an attempt to draw them away from finding out the truth. After defeating Pennywise, the kids believe they are free from the monster that took small kids and ate them. That is until, twenty-seven years after their fight with Pennywise, they discover that the creepy clown isn’t dead and is terrorizing the people of Derry again, but this time it is also coming for them.
Welcome to Derry is still in pre-production and no premiere date has been released. It and It Chapter Two are available to stream on HBO Max.