IT: WELCOME TO DERRY Creators Break Down That Shocking Premiere Ending and What It Means for the Rest of the Season
SPOILERS AHEAD!
The first episode of It: Welcome to Derry wasted no time reminding fans that this series is not playing it safe. Just when it seemed like we were meeting a new Losers Club to follow through the season, the show pulled the rug out from under everyone with a brutal, chaotic sequence inside a movie theater that left several of the kids seemingly dead.
The premiere already opened with a gut punch, with the sudden death of Matty, a scene that felt like a familiar setup for fans of It, echoing Georgie’s tragic fate in the 2017 film.
But unlike that story, the horror didn’t stop after one kill. The massacre that followed shocked audiences and made one thing clear: Welcome to Derry isn’t following the rules.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Andy Muschietti explained the intention behind the episode’s shocking twist:
“Yeah, it’s exactly as you said, you want to create an event that gives the audience a sense that if these kids were smoked at the end of the first episode, nothing is sacred. In this world, no one will be safe. So, technically, that was the intention.”
Barbara Muschietti and Andy wanted to challenge expectations while staying true to the tone of their It films. Andy continued:
“Also, it responds to the idea of subverting certain aspects. We did two movies already. One thing that we didn’t want was to — given that we’re using the same tone and the style as the movies — is get people too familiar [with the story mechanics].
“We really wanted to create a subversion to get people excited. It has to do also with raising the volume a little in terms of intensity and spectacle.”
So, are the kids really dead? The answer is… kind of. The show leaves it intentionally vague, but at least one of them is definitely in bad shape (missing an arm, to be exact).
The episode also opened with Matty’s eerie death scene, which is a sequence that left fans wondering what’s real and what’s illusion when it comes to Pennywise’s powers. Andy addressed that ambiguity saying:
“Answering that question would somehow kill the magic. Because there’s always the lingering concept that we believe in that It exists because the kids believe what they see. So it’s a feedback between believing in something that you see and creating something that you believe. It’s an abstraction, but that’s really one of the strong themes in the book.
“There’s a point where the Losers Club in [the book wonder], ‘Does this exist because it’s real or because we believe in it?’ So that’s a question that I can’t answer as an external viewer. Would you see Matty flying in an invisible car? Or it was all in his head? Or was there actually a manifestation of the car?
“That’s a big question and I’m not brave enough to answer it because it is one of the great enigmas in the book that has to be unsolved.”
He added, “Nobody has ever asked me that question, and it really made me think.”
And where was Pennywise during all this? The Muschiettis are taking a “less is more” approach for now, holding back the full reveal of the killer clown. Andy explained their reasoning in a previous interview:
“We did ‘less is more’ for half the show, but then we did ‘more is more.’ The idea behind the delayed appearance is the buildup of expectation. The audience doesn’t know that they want it, but I think it creates a very special feeling. When and where the clown is going to appear was a game that I wanted to play with the audience.”
It: Welcome to Derry is already setting itself apart from the It films, turning familiar fears into something new and unpredictable. If the premiere is any indication, fans are in for a terrifying ride where absolutely no one is safe.
It: Welcome to Derry airs Sundays on HBO.