IT: WELCOME TO DERRY Showrunner Reveals Episode 5’s Cruelest Twist Came from a Scrapped IT: CHAPTER TWO Idea

It: Welcome to Derry episode 5 delivered one of the show’s most vicious surprises, and according to co showrunner Jason Fuchs, that moment wasn’t originally crafted for the prequel at all. It was first conceived for a completely different project.

Fuchs revealed that the episode’s most shocking Pennywise trick actually started life as an abandoned idea from It: Chapter Two, and it has a long, creepy history behind it.

Fuchs told GamesRadar+ that the horrifying reveal involving Matty was something he had experimented with years before.

In episode 5, Pennywise impersonates Matty Clements, manipulating the kids into heading deep into the tunnels. It is one of the most devastating moments so far in It: Welcome to Derry, and Fuchs explained how the idea first took shape.

"It posing as Matty Clements, it hit all those marks for us. It's cruel, it's unexpected, it's incredibly canny in terms of using Matty to get the kids into the tunnels and throw them into Leroy and the team's path.

“But I haven't talked to anyone else about this in terms of the genesis of that specific choice. That actually was something I played around with on It: Chapter Two."

That idea originally revolved around the adult version of Mike Hanlon. Fuchs revealed that while helping with production work on It: Chapter Two, he drafted a version of the story where Mike was not who he appeared to be.

"When I was working on that, I came in and did some production work on and one of the things that I played around with on that was, if you remember that film, Mike Hanlon, as per the book, is still in Derry. He invites our characters back, Ritual of Chüd, they go down into the cistern. All that stuff happens, as it does in the film.

“Spoiler alert for those who haven't seen Chapter Two. I had a version of that script where they got down into the cistern and they found a starved, bedraggled, hostage Mike Hanlon and realized that the Mike played by Isaiah Mustafa that they'd encountered the entire film was an It manifestation."

The twist lands in It: Welcome to Derry with Matty Clements instead. After being killed in the first episode, Matty suddenly reappears to Lily, Ronnie, Rich, Will and Marge, insisting he survived by hiding in the sewers. He even claims their murdered friend Phil is still alive. Hoping for answers, the group follows him underground.

What they find is far worse. The bodies of their lost friends surface in the water, including the real Matty. The figure they trusted begins to distort before shifting into Pennywise. It is vicious, heartbreaking and incredibly effective.

While a version of this could have appeared in It: Chapter Two, the creative team realized it would have undercut one of the story’s most important characters. Mike Hanlon’s dedication, history and research are essential to both the book and the film’s narrative. Using him for a long con would have erased nearly everything that makes him meaningful.

"For a variety of reasons, it didn't feel like the right choice there," Fuchs explains. "I think the main thing the Muschiettis and I felt when we looked at that as an option was that it underserved Mike Hanlon's character, the grown-up Mike Hanlon character.

“And had we done that, you really only would have been with the real Mike Hanlon for a precious few moments of the third act of that film."

With Mike being such a central force, the team dropped the concept. But the idea never fully left Fuchs’ mind. He continued:

"It felt like an interesting idea that was wrong because it didn't do justice to Mike. And so we abandoned it. And I didn't really think of it again. Until we started building this show. And it was an early idea of, 'What if we use that trick here? What if It was a little stronger here? Is there a way that that might make sense?'

“And then when it came to how it was going to contrive to have the kids get thrown into jeopardy in the sewers and throw them into the path of the military and have those plot lines converge... that was the moment. I remember being on the phone with [Brad Caleb Kane] and pitching it to him, and we just went, 'Oh yeah, this is exactly it.'"

Instead of undermining a beloved adult character, the concept now fuels one of the most chilling moments in the prequel. By placing it in It: Welcome to Derry, the show gets to explore Pennywise’s manipulative power in a fresh, terrifying way while driving multiple story threads into a collision.

For longtime fans of Stephen King’s world, it is fascinating to see how ideas evolve across adaptations. A moment that once felt wrong for It: Chapter Two has become one of the standout shocks of It: Welcome to Derry.