Stephen King’s Welcome to Derry Will Finally Reveal What Pennywise Wants — And Why It’s There

Andy Muschietti is not playing coy anymore. The It director says the prequel series It: Welcome to Derry is finally going to pull back the curtain on Pennywise, and he is promising both bigger scares and bigger feelings. Yes, they want to make you jump, but they also want to make you care. And then, apparently, explain the stuff fans have argued about since the book came out.

"We are opening a window into the bigger mythology... all the cryptic elements of It that we are going to ruin and explain."

What you need to know

• Timeline: Season 1 is set in 1962, exactly 27 years before the first Muschietti It movie. Season 2 shifts back to 1935, and Season 3 goes further to 1908. The plan is to lay groundwork in Season 1 and pay it off in Seasons 2 and 3.
• Premise: This is an origin story for Pennywise the Dancing Clown, with the mythology getting a proper deep dive instead of staying mysterious just for mystery's sake.
• Cast: Bill Skarsgard is back under the greasepaint as Pennywise. Jovan Adepo plays Leroy Hanlon and Taylour Paige plays Charlotte Hanlon (aka Mike Hanlon's parents). Chris Chalk shows up as Dick Hallorann (yes, the same Hallorann from The Shining). James Remar and Stephen Rider are in the ensemble as well.
• Kingverse crossovers: In case Hallorann wasn't enough of a wink, the trailer flashes a truck stamped with 'Shawshank Prison'. So, yes, expect Stephen King connective tissue.
• Tone and scale: Muschietti says the horror is turned up to 10 and the character work is meant to hit harder than the films, aiming for a bigger emotional punch by the end.
• Release date: It: Welcome to Derry premieres October 26.
• Magazine cover story: The new SFX magazine puts the series on the cover and hits newsstands Wednesday, October 8. It is their 2025 Halloween Horror Special, loaded with exclusive interviews and extras.

If you are into the inside baseball of this universe, there is a lot to chew on. Folding Hallorann into Derry is a bold swing; teasing Shawshank on top of that basically screams 'shared universe' in neon. Also interesting: the seasons move backward in time, which suggests the answers about It get stranger (and older) the deeper you go.

Muschietti frames the show as a character-first horror epic that also answers the big questions fans keep asking: what does It want, and why is It here? He says the finale aims for a larger, more cathartic emotional payoff than the films. And Barbara Muschietti is not shy about the hype either, calling it the most terrifying thing ever made for TV. Strong claim. We will see if the clown delivers.

Short version: Skarsgard is back, the scares are bigger, the lore is finally getting decoded, and Derry is about to become the nexus of the Stephen King multiverse. October 26 cannot come fast enough.