HBO Backed It: Welcome to Derry’s Terrifying NSFW Opening — Even the Director Thought It Would Never Air

HBO gave the Muschietti siblings the green light to kick off It: Welcome to Derry with a scene so gnarly even they figured it would never make it to air. Mild spoilers for episode 1 ahead.

The opener: zero hand-holding, maximum nightmare fuel

At a New York Comic Con roundtable, director-producer duo Andy and Barbara Muschietti said they wanted to start the prequel the way their It movies did: with a hard shock that sets the tone and makes it crystal clear nobody is safe. Andy also mentioned a literal ticking-clock device baked into the pilot that the network dug enough to bring back in a bigger way by the end of episode 1.

'I was thinking, I don't think they're gonna let us air this. I think there's gonna be scissor-hands everywhere.'

What did HBO sign off on? A very graphic sequence staged from an unflinching, front-on perspective of childbirth, loaded with anatomy and gore. And yes, the idea is that evil is born. Literally. Like their two films, there is no easing in; the show stomps on the gas from minute one and only gets harsher from there. Barbara said they genuinely did not expect to get away with it, but HBO supported the graphic horror and body-horror elements all the way.

Where and when we are in Derry

The series is set in 1962, long before the modern Losers Club, and focuses on an early cohort of kids in Derry alongside the grandparents of Mike Hanlon. The show pulls from the exhaustive research Mike does into the town's cursed history, which includes the human alias Bob Gray cropping up in Derry.

The idea under the horror

Co-showrunner and head writer Jason Fuchs wrote the pilot's opening early on with the express goal of scaring people out of their sleep. He sees it as the birth of a new wave of It terror, and he ties it directly to the era: Cold War dread, nuclear anxiety, radiation fears. On paper it was intense; on screen, he says, it went even further. Fellow co-showrunner Brad Caleb Kane frames the opener as a mission statement: the picture-perfect American nuclear family on the surface, rot underneath. Scratch the gloss and you find It, quietly pulling the strings in ways that are way uglier than the period's polished veneer suggests.

HBO backed the gore, the Muschiettis brought the throttle

Andy was blunt about why the sequence rattles: it is graphic, the camera position is confrontational, and it leans into body horror. Barbara said they felt lucky to have the network's full support when most places would have reached for the scissors.

Pennywise, Dick Hallorann, and who's who

• Bill Skarsgard returns as Pennywise
• Jovan Adepo plays Leroy Hanlon
• Chris Chalk is Dick Hallorann (yes, the same Hallorann from The Shining)
• Taylour Paige plays Charlotte Hanlon
• James Remar co-stars
• Stephen Rider co-stars

The Hanlons here are Mike's parents. And in footage screened privately at NYCC, Hallorann taps into his Shining and winds up face-to-face with Pennywise.

The clock is ticking

Andy teased that the show's love of a countdown isn't just a one-off pilot gimmick. The ticking-clock tension shows up again in a larger way by the end of episode 1 and threads into the season's rising pace.

It: Welcome to Derry premieres October 26 on HBO Max.