IT: Welcome to Derry is shrouded in secrecy, with surprisingly little known about what the prequel will add to the IT mythos established by author Stephen King's novel and the 2017 and 2019 movies.
Fans hope that the HBO series will explore Pennywise the Clown's mysterious past, and some newly revealed Funko Pops appear to confirm that's exactly what will happen. As you can see below, one of the figures is "Bob Gray," the persona it's believed Pennywise took on at some point in Derry's past.
Whether this was who "It" used to be or was simply how the creature used to torment the town could finally be uncovered in IT: Welcome to Derry. There were rumblings some time ago about this being an origin story for Pennywise, too, so it seems we'll soon learn much more about the horror villain.
We also see a terrifying Skeleton Man; he's either another of Pennywise's forms or another mystery antagonist that haunts Derry. The creature does appear to bear a resemblance to a "man" in a missing poster previously shared by King on social media, and may be central to the show's story.
"One day, I wrote to [King] and said, 'We have this idea, which is to develop the interludes in a miniseries that will take place before the events of the movie,' and he loved it," Andy Muschietti said earlier this year. "He said, 'Let’s do it!' Obviously, as we progressed, we kept showing him the work, and he approved the first draft of the script."
"Then we showed him where we would take the future seasons of the show. He trusts us because of what we did with the movies, which he loved as much as audiences did," the filmmaker added.
Set in the world of Stephen King's IT universe, IT: Welcome to Derry is based on King's IT novel and expands the vision established by filmmaker Andy Muschietti in the feature films IT and IT Chapter Two.
The series, from Warner Bros. Television and developed for television by filmmakers Andy and Barbara Muschietti (IT, The Flash) and Jason Fuchs (Wonder Woman), will debut on HBO and also be available to stream on Max. Muschietti will direct four episodes of the nine-episode series.
The cast is led by Taylour Paige, Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, James Remar, Stephen Rider, Madeleine Stowe, Rudy Mancuso, and Bill Skarsgård.
Produced by HBO and Warner Bros. Television, with a story by Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, and Jason Fuchs, IT: Welcome to Derry is based on the novel IT by Stephen King.
Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti (through their Double Dream production company), Jason Fuchs, Brad Caleb Kane, David Coatsworth, Bill Skarsgård, Shelley Meals, Roy Lee, and Dan Lin are executive producers. Fuchs, who wrote the teleplay for the first episode, and Kane serve as co-showrunners on the project.
IT: Welcome to Derry will premiere on HBO Max this October.