HBO Max's IT Prequel Series WELCOME TO DERRY Moves Forward with Two Showrunners

HBO Max has been developing a prequel series to Stephen King’s It titled Welcome to Derry, and the project is moving forward with the hiring of two showrunners. Those showrunners are Jason Fuchs (It: Chapter II) and Brad Caleb Kane (Tokyo Vice), who will also executive produce the series.

We don’t really know much the story that the series will tell, but we do know that story is that it will be in the 1960s in the time leading up to the events of the 2017 film It: Chapter I. The story is also said to include the origin story of Pennywise the Clown,

Fuchs also wrote the script for the first episode of the series, and it’s based on a story that he worked on with film franchise director Andy Muschietti and producer Barbara Muschietti. The Muschiettis will also executive produce and Andy is most likely going to direct the series premiere.

When previously talking about the mythology of the story Muschietti said, “There is a whole mythology to the book though…Mythology is something that always has opportunities to explore. It [aka Pennywise] has been on Earth for millions of years. He’s been in contact with humans for hundreds of years, every 27 years. So you can imagine the amount of material. It’s always exciting to think of eventually exploring this mythology. It’s very exciting. But, for now, there’s nothing on the table.”

As far as bringing back Pennywise the Clown, Bill Skarsgård said that he is open to reprising his role in another project. He said, “There is this interesting aspect of going back in time before all this happened. There might be a story there that might be worth exploring. Obviously, that would be a story that’s not in the book, it would be a freestanding story, but obviously within the same universe. So, there might be something interesting out of it. I think it would be fun.”

There are some great nightmarish stories to tell because the shapeshifting alien creature has been around in Derry killing people for a very long time.

It arrived on Earth in a massive cataclysmic event similar to an asteroid impact, landing in a location in North America that would eventually become Derry, Maine.

Once people settled over this location, It adopted its usual pattern of a 27-30 year hibernation, waking to kill and eat. Each awakening and return to hibernation is sometimes marked by a violent act, such as a mass murder or weather event. In the period between, a series of child murders occurring in Derry are never solved. It is outwardly explained that a series of murders, no matter how gruesome, don't get reported if they happen in the small town. However, the real reason is that the influence of It prevents anyone from investigating too deeply.

Here’s the timeline for It, which features several stories that a prequel could explore:

• 1715 – 1716: IT painfully awakes.

• 1740 – 1743: IT starts a three-year reign of terror that culminates in the disappearance of over three hundred settlers from Derry Township (similar to the lost Roanoke Colony, which was founded as a logging town.)

• 1769 – 1770: IT awakes again.

• 1851: IT awakes when a man named John Markson poisons his own family, then commits suicide by eating a white nightshade mushroom, causing an excruciating death.

• 1876 – 1879: IT awakes, then returns to hibernation after murdering a group of lumberjacks who were later found near the Kenduskeag Stream.

• 1904: IT awakes when a lumberjack named Claude Heroux murders a dozen men in a bar with just one axe. Heroux was promptly pursued by a mob of townsfolk and hung.

• 1906: IT returns to hibernation when the Kitchener Ironworks explode, killing 108 people, 88 of whom were children at an Easter egg hunt.

• 1929: IT awakes when a group of Derry citizens ambushes and kills the Bradley Gang, a group of robbers and murderers. The town, including its police chief, pretends it never happened. However, a witness later recounts the tale to Mike Hanlon, including seeing a clown in farmer's attire participating in the slaying.

• 1930: IT returns to hibernation when the Maine Legion of White Decency, a Northern counterpart to the Ku Klux Klan, burns down "The Black Spot", a nightclub known to cater to African-Americans at the nearby army base. IT appears at the location as a giant bird with balloons on its wings.

I’m excited to see how this series turns out!