Pennywise lives, and it will not be lengthy earlier than we meet everybody’s least favourite clown beneath the sewers of Derry as soon as extra.
However given we have already had two IT films that largely coated the occasions of Stephen King‘s well-known novel, what’s HBO Max’s new sequence IT: Welcome to Derry going to be about?
We have seen from the trailer that Pennywise (Invoice Skarsgård) will return, and {that a} bunch of recent youngsters will probably be banding collectively to face him — however how precisely does this tie in with the films and e book?
We have damaged down the whole lot we all know to this point beneath.
Is IT: Welcome to Derry primarily based on Stephen King’s e book?
Our largest clues as to what IT: Welcome to Derry will probably be primarily based on, alongside the trailer, comes courtesy of the official HBO Max logline and a few useful interview quotes from government producer Andy Muschietti himself.
“Set on the planet of Stephen King’s IT universe, IT: WELCOME TO DERRY relies on King’s IT novel and expands the imaginative and prescient established by filmmaker Andy Muschietti within the characteristic movies IT and IT Chapter Two,” reads the logline.
So, the present is primarily based on the novel — however which bit? Nicely, for that we are able to flip to a Spanish interview Muschietti gave to Radio Tu earlier within the yr, which has been translated by Bloody Disgusting (Mashable hasn’t translated the unique interview).
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“It is a story that is primarily based on the interludes of the e book,” Muschietti stated. “The interludes are principally chapters that mirror Mike Hanlon’s analysis. They’re fragments of his analysis. For 27 years, it is the man making an attempt to determine what it’s, what did it, who did it, who noticed it, and all that stuff.”
For anybody who hasn’t learn King’s novel, Mike Hanlon is the one member of the Losers’ Membership who stays behind in Derry after the youngsters defeat the monster the primary time round. The novel has 5 interludes which are basically diary entries written by Mike through which he compiles a historical past of Derry, chronicling the city’s darker chapters that coincide with the cycles through which Pennywise awakens to feed.
“In order that they speak about catastrophic occasions from the previous, like the fireplace within the Black Spot… the bloodbath of the Bradley Gang, a gang of financial institution robbers within the ’30s… and the explosion of the Kitchener Ironworks,” Muschietti stated.
It seems these chapters of Derry’s historical past will kind the idea for the brand new present.

“IT: Welcome to Derry” takes place in 1962, however the present is planning to delve deeper into the city’s historical past.
Credit score: HBO
How is IT: Welcome to Derry associated to the IT films?
Though Andy Muschietti’s IT films had been primarily based on King’s novel, there was one key distinction that may have a knock-on impact for the sequence: Whereas the childhood portion of the books was set within the late Fifties, the childhood part of the films takes place within the ’80s. Because of this all of the cycles in Muschietti’s IT universe are basically pushed again by one.
We all know from the IT: Welcome to Derry trailer that the sequence takes place in in 1962, which is the cycle earlier than the one proven within the first IT film. And we all know from Muschietti’s interview that he is planning three seasons of this new present, every of which is able to leap again in time.
Within the novels, Pennywise’s killing cycles are bookended by catastrophic occasions. The Nineteen Thirties cycle begins with the bloodbath of the Bradley Gang and ends with the fireplace on the Black Spot, whereas the cycle earlier than that ends with the Ironworks exploding.
Based mostly on Muschietti’s feedback, it looks as if the present will convey these key moments within the city’s historical past to life.

