HBO Max has released the first trailer for IT: Welcome to Derry, and it (no pun intended) all looks a little familiar. While the IT and IT Chapter Two movies shifted the action from the 1950s and 1980s to the 1980s and 2010s, this story is set in the 1960s and feels more in line with Stephen King's original novel.
However, with the spotlight put on a group of kids attempting to stop Pennywise the Clown's reign of terror, it's hard not to wonder what this TV series will bring to the table that IT fans haven't already seen.
It looks suitably creepy and scary, though, and Bill Skarsgård's demented killer clown makes its presence felt in the closing moments of this sneak peek. Pennywise doesn't look too different, but is mostly being kept under wraps for now.
The series, from Warner Bros. Television and developed for television by filmmakers Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti (IT, The Flash) and Jason Fuchs (Wonder Woman), will debut on HBO later this year and will also be available to stream on Max. Muschietti will direct four episodes of the nine-episode series.
"Stephen King has to approve everything," the filmmaker previously said of the author's involvement with IT: Welcome to Derry. "But it was really informal this time. I’ve had a close relationship with Stephen King since I made the movies. He writes to me, and I write him back. It’s an honor for me, and I consider him a friend."
"One day, I wrote to him 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. 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," Muschietti added. "He trusts us because of what we did with the movies, which he loved as much as audiences did."
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 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 Fall.