Is 'IT: Welcome to Derry' based on Stephen King's book?
Pennywise lives, with everyone's least favorite clown emerging from the sewers once more with the arrival of IT: Welcome to Derry.
But given we've already had two IT movies that largely covered the events of Stephen King's famous novel, what is HBO Max's new series about?
We've seen from the trailer and the very first episode that Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) is back, and that a bunch of new kids will be banding together to face him — but how exactly does this tie in with the movies and book? We've broken down everything we know so far below, without spoilers.
Is IT: Welcome to Derry based on Stephen King's book?
Without getting into the events of the first episode — if you've seen it, we have those deep dives for you — our biggest clues as to the basis of IT: Welcome to Derry came courtesy of the official HBO Max trailer and logline, along with some helpful interview quotes from executive producer Andy Muschietti himself.
"Set in the world of Stephen King’s IT universe, IT: WELCOME TO DERRY is based on King’s IT novel and expands the vision established by filmmaker Andy Muschietti in the feature films IT and IT Chapter Two," reads the logline.
So, the show is based on the novel — but which bit? Well, for that we can turn to a Spanish interview Muschietti gave to Radio Tu earlier in the year, which has been translated by Bloody Disgusting (Mashable hasn't translated the original interview).
"It's a story that's based on the interludes of the book," Muschietti said. "The interludes are basically chapters that reflect Mike Hanlon's research. They're fragments of his research. For 27 years, it's the guy trying to figure out what it is, what did it, who did it, who saw it, and all that stuff."
If you've read King's novel IT, you'll already know who Mike Hanlon is (and get ready for a wave of Stephen King Easter eggs in the show). If you haven't read it, Mike Hanlon is the one member of the Losers' Club who stays behind in the town of Derry after the kids defeat the monster the first time around. The novel has five interludes that are essentially diary entries written by Mike in which he compiles a history of Derry, chronicling the town's darker chapters that coincide with the cycles in which Pennywise awakens to feed.
"So they talk about catastrophic events from the past, like the fire in the Black Spot... the massacre of the Bradley Gang, a gang of bank robbers in the '30s... and the explosion of the Kitchener Ironworks," Muschietti said.
These chapters of Derry's history form the basis for IT: Welcome to Derry.
How is IT: Welcome to Derry related to the IT movies?
Although Muschietti's IT movies were based on King's novel, there was one key difference that will have a knock-on effect for the series: While the childhood portion of the books was set in the late 1950s, the childhood section of the movies takes place in the '80s. This means that all the cycles in Muschietti's IT universe are essentially pushed back by one.
We know from the IT: Welcome to Derry trailer that the series takes place in in 1962, which is the cycle before the one shown in the first IT movie. And we know from Muschietti's interview that he's planning three seasons of this new show, each of which will jump back in time.
In the novels, Pennywise's killing cycles are bookended by catastrophic events. The 1930s cycle starts with the massacre of the Bradley Gang and ends with the fire at the Black Spot, while the cycle before that ends with the Ironworks exploding.
So, it seems like the show will bring these key moments in Derry's history to life. All you need to do is make it through the scares.
Topics HBO Stephen King Streaming
