We Simply Noticed 10 Jaw-Dropping Minutes of ‘It: Welcome to Derry’

We had been already on edge anticipating it: Welcome to Derry, the HBO prequel sequence laying the groundwork for Stephen King’s tale of a small city with a large demonic clown problem. However the brand new peek simply shared in-room at San Diego Comedian-Con—constructing off that evocative teaser from a couple of months again—indicators it’s going to be a present that interrupts your sleep frequently.

We noticed the opening of the very first episode. It’s 1962 in Derry, Maine—close to Christmas, going by the snow and the decorations—and persons are watching The Music Man on the native movie show. The digital camera shifts from the display (certainly not by coincidence, it’s the quantity the place Howard Hill is warning the individuals of River Metropolis they’ve “received bother!”) to the viewers, and we see a child of about 12 sitting by himself, sucking on a pacifier.

He’s too previous for a pacifier, however that element recedes for a bit when an usher seems and tells him to depart. “Pity isn’t going to maintain the lights on, Hank!” the usher snaps on the projectionist when he urges him to go simple on the pint-sized freeloader. The projectionist’s daughter, who’s about the identical age because the pacifier child, helps him sneak away, and he makes his means exterior to the darkish, frozen street.

A household—dad, pregnant mother, two children—pulls over and warmly gives to present him a trip; after they ask the place “residence” is, he says, “Wherever however Derry.” They are saying they’re going to Portland, and he’s welcome to return alongside.

However that is Welcome to Derry, not Escape from Derry. The child begins to note that there’s one thing very off in regards to the individuals who’ve picked him up. The little boy brags about what an ideal speller he’s, however the phrases his mom flings at him to point out off with preserve getting creepier (“necrosis,” “kidnapping,” “strangulation”). In the meantime, his sister opens a plastic container marked “liver” and begins snacking on it… uncooked. Then she sticks her bloody hand within the pacifier child’s face.

The child begins frantically jiggling the door deal with, nevertheless it’s no use. The freakiness quickly escalates contained in the automotive—and outdoors, because the automotive cruises by the identical “Welcome to Derry” signal for the second time—however nothing prepares you for what comes subsequent. The mother goes into labor, and there’s a grotesque shot of her stomach pulsating in such a means that you already know what’s popping out isn’t human.

And, sure, there’s a ugly start within the entrance seat; it produces a monstrous toddler with wings and a very terrible face. After it chaotically zooms across the within the automotive with its umbilical twine nonetheless hooked up, it clamps its horrible gaze on the child and pounces on him.

The automotive window breaks, and we see the pacifier hovering via the air and into the water close to the street… then drifting right into a sewer tunnel, precisely the form of place our buddy Pennywise the clown likes to hang around.

It’s a deeply unsettling sequence, and it units up so many parts that It: Welcome to Derry will discover. Whereas good individuals do dwell in Derry, just like the projectionist and his daughter, there’s additionally one thing festering slightly below the floor—a pressure able to supernatural illusions and skilled mindfuckery that takes particular enjoyment of tormenting kids. This can be the small display, however the frights won’t be diminished.

After the footage, Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti—the sibling group behind the latest It motion pictures and the co-developers of this new spin-off, with Andy directing a number of episodes—got here out to speak extra in regards to the sequence.

The genesis of Welcome to Derry got here when the Muschiettis had been engaged on the flicks. They had been exhausted, as was star Invoice Skarsgård, after they had been completed—however as Andy recalled, “We all the time fantasized about doing the origin story, how ‘It’ turns into Pennywise, which is without doubt one of the massive mysteries within the e-book … We beloved [the idea of a] TV sequence due to the alternatives that provides you: a bigger canvas to inform the story, extra characters, extra nuances, and extra sophisticated arcs.”

Barbara added that after they took the thought to Stephen King, it was his concept to return in time, following Pennywise’s 27-year cycle, to 1962. “There’s a cause why it goes again in time, however we will’t let you already know but,” Andy teased.

“On the finish of the e-book, no person is aware of what the hell ‘It’ is. What does ‘It’ need? Who’s Bob Grey [Pennywise’s real name]? How did all of it occur? We’re going to break this,” he joked, however famous that whereas Welcome to Derry will reply among the e-book’s long-standing questions, it can increase new mysteries too.

A second teaser trailer was additionally proven within the room at SDCC. It expands on the primary teaser with extra distressing imagery—”lacking” posters, a Shawshank State Jail bus, a crimson balloon, individuals behaving in unfriendly methods, the tiniest glimpse of Pennywise—and will probably be launched to the general public, although a date wasn’t given.

It: Welcome to Derry debuts this October on HBO and HBO Max. It’ll run 9 episodes and stars Taylour Paige, Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk (taking part in Dick Halloran, a personality who seems within the It novel however is finest recognized for The Shining), James Remar, Stephen Rider, Madeleine Stowe, Rudy Mancuso, and—after all—Invoice Skarsgård as Pennywise.

Behind the scenes, it was developed by Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti (It and It Chapter Two) and Jason Fuchs (It Chapter Two), with Andy Muschietti dealing with directing duties on a number of episodes.

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