Releasing on October 26, It: Welcome to Derry serves as a prequel to director Andy Muschietti’s It (2017) and It Chapter Two (2019). Each earlier movies have been tailored from Stephen King’s 1986 novel It.
Throughout ScreenRant‘s It: Welcome to Derry interview with writers Jason Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane, the previous revealed that “Stephen [King] was very concerned.” Per Fuchs, “he must learn and approve just about all the pieces, however [the writers] did not know what his response was to the completed product till he put out a message on Threads that mentioned he liked the present and episode 1 was terrifying.“
“That was an enormous reduction and actually a profession spotlight, I feel, for each of us as mega Stephen King nerds,” the author continued. “To have him give it the seal of approval was unbelievable.“
Beforehand, King praised the It prequel, which he referred to as “wonderful” and “terrifying.” His stamp of approval holds a whole lot of weight, particularly amongst followers, as he has been an open critic of variations of his work prior to now. For instance, he famously derided Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining for its deviations from his 1977 novel of the identical identify.
2025 marks a landmark yr for King, with quite a few movies and collection primarily based on his work releasing. To date, movies The Monkey, The Lifetime of Chuck, and The Lengthy Stroll have seen principally optimistic crucial reception, with tv collection The Institute receiving blended critiques. How Welcome to Derry and Working Man are acquired by critics and followers stays to be seen, although King has praised each.
Welcome to Derry occupies a novel area of interest amongst these tasks as a result of it doesn’t have direct supply materials. Relatively, it takes the world of the It novel and movies and pushes it in a brand new course. Curiously, the HBO collection additionally intends to usher in lore from different King properties, akin to The Shining, by way of its inclusion of Dick Halloran.
Notably, Halloran already has ties to the It novel, being talked about as a founding father of The Black Spot, a bar in Derry that catered to African American troopers however was tragically burnt down by white supremacists. This incident led to him saving Will Hanlon, father of Mike Hanlon, a important character of It. These occasions weren’t depicted within the It movies or the 1990 It miniseries.
Regardless, Welcome to Derry has an attention-grabbing job forward of it. Nevertheless, with the broader lore of King’s novels to drag from (and the creator’s approval), the collection has terrifyingly good potential.