Stephen King’s One Note Saved It: Welcome to Derry from Becoming Game of Thrones

Stephen King is not just blessing IT: Welcome to Derry from afar — he was in the trenches with the writers. And that matters, especially when you start poking at Pennywise's origins, which is a fast way to kill the mystique if you get it wrong.

King in the room makes all the difference

Showrunner Jason Fuchs (who runs the series with Brad Caleb Kane) talked to ScreenRant about how having King as an actual collaborator gave them cover to do something they were nervous about: unpacking the Bob Gray side of the mythos. In other words, if they were going to answer some of those nagging questions, King would be the one to tell them if they were stepping in the right direction — or if they should back away slowly.

The blessing of having Stephen King as a partner and a collaborator in a show like this is that we don’t have to have those fears go unanswered... We knew we had an ace up our sleeves in Stephen King there to tell us if we were scratching in a direction that felt right to him.

That safety net let them finally pull on the Bob Gray thread without turning the whole thing into a lore dump. The goal with this prequel was always to show how the nightmare starts while keeping the dread intact. Pennywise works because he is unknowable; the trick here is letting a little light in without flipping on the fluorescents.

King has receipts when it comes to adaptations

King has never been shy about calling out versions of his work that miss the point — he famously took swings at Stanley Kubrick's The Shining and Mark Lester's Firestarter. He prefers when adaptations actually adapt the book he wrote, not a vibe of it. Speaking to the Associated Press, he put it the simple way only Stephen King can:

When you deviate from the story that I wrote, you do so at your own risk. I know what I’m doing and I’m not sure that screenwriters always do or that producers and directors always do.

So yeah, his fingerprints on Welcome to Derry aren't just a vanity credit. He cares that what ends up on TV feels like his story, even if it's a new corner of it.

Meanwhile, George R.R. Martin tried the other route

If this all sounds familiar, George R.R. Martin has been beating a similar drum for years. He has written about how some showrunners grab a story, try to put their stamp on it, and swear they're improving it — and then, well, you saw what happened. Martin was heavily involved with Game of Thrones early on, even writing episodes through Season 4, and he pushed back on decisions that drifted too far from the books. Then he stepped away to focus on the novels. The timing was brutal: after Season 5, the series basically ran out of canon. That vacuum shaped the final stretch, especially the lightning-rod that was Season 8.

Different franchises, different outcomes. But it's hard not to wonder: if Martin had stayed as hands-on as King is on Welcome to Derry, maybe that ending lands differently.

Quick info

• Show: IT: Welcome to Derry
• Showrunners: Jason Fuchs & Brad Caleb Kane
• Based on: Stephen King's IT
• Rotten Tomatoes: 80%
• Where to watch: HBO

Personally, I like when a prequel knows what not to explain — and bringing in the guy who created the monster to referee those calls is just smart. What do you think of King steering the ship on Welcome to Derry? Drop your take below.