The IT Prequel Series WELCOME TO DERRY Cast Has Been Revealed
HBO Max has announced the cast of its upcoming It prequel series Welcome to Derry. That cast includes Taylour Paige (Zola, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Jovan Adepo (Babylon, Watchmen), Chris Chalk (Perry Mason, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt), and James Remar (Oppenheimer, Megalopolis). There are no details on who they will be playing in the series.
The series is being developed by showrunners Jason Fuchs (It: Chapter II) and Brad Caleb Kane (Tokyo Vice), who will also executive produce the series. Andy Muschietti and producer Barbara Muschietti are also involved with the series, 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.”
This is just speculation on my part, but I think the series might tell the story of The Black Spot, which was a major location in Derry that is talked about in the movies and Stephen King’s novel. The Black Spot was a nightclub started by Mike Hanlon's dad, Will, and some of his friends. It was a place for black soldiers from the nearby Army base to go.
The was burned down by the Maine Legion of White Decency. One of the people inside was a young Dick Hallorann from The Shining, who worked in the club's kitchen. However, Hallorann managed to flee to safety… until he got to The Overlook Hotel.
There’s still no word on who will be playing Pennywise, but I sure hope they bring Bill Skarsgard back! He is open to reprising his role and 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!
Source: Variety