HBO Gave Full Support to IT: WELCOME TO DERRY’s Terrifying Opening Scene - “I Thought, ‘They’re Not Gonna Let Us Air This’”
The upcoming It: Welcome to Derry series doesn’t waste a single second before plunging viewers straight into horror. According to director-producer duo Andy and Barbara Muschietti, the show’s opening scene is a full-blown nightmare of death, and they were shocked HBO actually let them air it.
“Well, there’s a tradition of starting with a kick in the balls a little bit to just establish a little bit of what you will expect in terms of tone and style, but also to have people understand that nobody is safe in this world,” Andy said during a roundtable at NYCC.
“They love the ticking clock, by the way. So that was the idea, not only in the first 10 minutes, but also in a bigger fashion for the rest of the show at the end of episode one, which you saw.”
Set in 1962, the It prequel explores the sinister roots of Derry’s cursed history and introduces an early version of the Losers Club including the grandparents of It’s modern-day hero, Mike Hanlon.
It’s a dark origin story tied to the horrifying research Mike did on Derry’s past, where Pennywise’s human alter ego Bob Gray still haunts the town.
Those who’ve seen the premiere say the first ten minutes are some of the most shocking moments ever broadcast on television. And yes, that’s saying something.
“Personally, as we were shooting it, I was thinking, I don’t think they’re gonna let us air this. I think there’s gonna be scissor-hands everywhere,” Barbara admitted.
Much like the gut-punch openings of It and It: Chapter Two, the series wastes no time building atmosphere. It dives straight into a disturbing, blood-soaked sequence that’s as graphic as it is unforgettable.
“Because it’s very graphic, like the places where the camera is; it’s basically a very frontal angle of childbirth and anatomy, and also a lot of gore,” Andy explained.
Barbara added, “We didn’t know that we would get away with it, but we had the full support of HBO and everything that was graphic horror and body horror. We’re very lucky.”
Co-showrunner and writer Jason Fuchs revealed that this gruesome opening was the first thing he wrote for the series — and it serves as both a literal and symbolic birth of evil.
“I think that the opening sequence of the pilot is probably my favorite – it’s one of the first things I wrote when I started writing the show,” Fuchs said.
“And it just feels like the birth of a new generation of it terror, quite literally if you’ve seen the sequence. It takes advantage of the fear and terror of that moment. It’s obviously a show set in 1962, in the context of the Cold War.
“Fears of nuclear war, fears of nuclear radiation, and so to be able to do something that sort of spoke to that felt pretty exciting. And it goes in directions you’re not expecting, and it is even more extreme in execution than it was on the page.”
Co-showrunner Brad Caleb Kane added that the opening is a perfect reflection of what Welcome to Derry is really about.
“I love it so much because it sets the tone for the metaphor of the show, which is, you know, here’s this perfect American nuclear family,” Kane explained.
“It’s what you see on the surface, but you scratch a little deeper, you scratch the surface and see the rot underneath. And that’s more of the reality of what we’re facing in the show.
“Everything is very gleaming and perfect on the surface, but dig a little deeper and you’re gonna see that it is controlling everything, and it’s pretty horrific underneath. I like that as a metaphor for the show as a whole.”
Bill Skarsgård returns as Pennywise, joined by a strong ensemble that includes Jovan Adepo as Leroy Hanlon, Chris Chalk as Dick Hallorann, Taylour Paige as Charlotte Hanlon, James Remar, and Stephen Rider. Fans of The Shining will be excited to know that Chalk’s Hallorann taps into his Shining abilities.
It: Welcome to Derry premieres October 26 on HBO Max.
Source: GamesRadar+