Inside It Prequel Welcome to Derry: Cast and Executive Producer Unpack That Grim, Death-Filled Episode 1 Finale

Welcome back to Derry, where even 1962 is having a full-blown nervous breakdown. The prequel series plants us in the Cold War era and throws a fresh group of kids into the meat grinder: Matty, Lilly, Phil, Teddy, and Ronnie. It is tense, it is mean, and Episode 1 wastes no time reminding you that in this town, bad things don’t just happen — they erupt.

The setup: Cold War dread, small-town rot

It’s 1962, and you can feel the paranoia seeping through the walls. The show leans hard into the era’s nuclear anxiety and Derry’s usual brand of denial. Our entry point is Matty (Miles Ekhardt), a neglected kid trying to bolt from town. He never makes it. He stumbles onto a car-side birth that turns ghastly — a deformed, writhing baby that looks like a nightmare spun from radiation PSAs — and then Matty simply vanishes.

Director Andy Muschietti frames that opening as a literalization of the time’s fear: the radio keeps yammering about birth defects and fallout, and Derry’s monsters... listen.

On base: Leroy walks into a storm

Elsewhere, Major Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) arrives at an airbase and immediately runs into racism from subordinates. General Francis Shaw (James Remar) shuts that down fast. Remar’s take on Shaw is a hard-line protector — a leader who actually means it when he says everyone under his command is his responsibility — and someone who backed desegregation from the moment President Truman ordered it.

That’s not Leroy’s only problem. He’s later jumped by masked men demanding classified intel. He survives thanks to his partner, Pauly Russo (Randy Mancuso), who shows up right when it counts.

The kids, the movie, the massacre

Lilly (Clara Stack) pulls her friends Phil (Jack Molloy Legault), Teddy (Mikkal Karim-Fidler), and Susie (Matilda Legault) back to the local theater for a re-screening of The Music Man, hoping it’ll help them track down Matty. What they get is something else entirely: a winged creature rips straight through the screen and tears into the auditorium. By the time it’s over, Teddy, Phil, and Susie are dead. Yes, that is the premiere. Yes, that escalated.

"From the first episode of the show, this is not the movies... you shouldn’t get too comfortable with anybody... Anything can happen. Anything will."

- Executive producer Brad Caleb Kane

What the creators say they’re doing

Cocreator Jason Fuchs says the mandate from the King-verse is that Derry stands in for America at large — a little pressure cooker for whatever the country is terrified of at any given moment — and 1962 gives them a very specific panic to play with. Muschietti backs that up with the premiere’s imagery: the monsters aren’t random; they’re tuned to the era’s collective nightmares. And Kane is very clear about the show’s rules: if you’re expecting comfort characters, you’re in the wrong town.

Who’s who (and who doesn’t make it out of Episode 1)

• Matty (Miles Ekhardt): Neglected kid trying to flee Derry; disappears after the mutant-baby incident.
• Lilly (Clara Stack): Leads the movie-theater plan to find Matty; survives the attack.
• Phil (Jack Molloy Legault): Killed when the winged creature bursts through the screen.
• Teddy (Mikkal Karim-Fidler): Also killed in the theater attack.
• Susie (Matilda Legault): Killed in the same attack.
• Ronnie: Part of the new kid group this season; not involved in the premiere’s theater bloodbath.
• Major Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo): New arrival at the airbase; targeted for classified info; rescued by partner Pauly.
• General Francis Shaw (James Remar): Firmly defends Leroy and backs troop integration.
• Pauly Russo (Randy Mancuso): Leroy’s partner; intervenes during the masked attack.

Bottom line: the show’s not easing you in. It goes straight for Cold War panic, bigotry on base, and a theater sequence that turns a feel-good musical into a feeding ground. The message is loud and clear: Derry is back, and it’s hungrier than ever.