The spooky season is here, and It: Welcome to Derry makes for the perfect watch for fans craving a truly horror-infused experience. But in a surprising turn of events, Stephen King, who authored the show back in 1986, is himself terrified of Pennywise! In an interview with the New York Post (published October 31, 2025), King said,
I like ‘Welcome to Derry’ a lot. There are plenty of horrors and lots of surreal visuals. There’s a supermarket scare that sticks in my mind, complete with pickle jars.
No wonder, kudos to Bill Skarsgård, who also portrayed the killer dancing clown in the 2017 and 2019 films, and the other cast members who have managed to terrify the audience and the creator himself. It should definitely be called an achievement in a sense.
Welcome to Derry: Cast, Plot, and Everything We Know About the It Prequel
Welcome to Derry has swept the viewers off their feet with its impeccable visuals and terrific narrative. The cast has managed to create a horrifying persona in the audience’s minds, and that is, to date, a big achievement.
Apart from the iconic role as the main antagonist, Bill Skarsgård, the cast of the two-episode show consists of:
Since the series is a prequel to the movies, the plot is set in 1962, showing the events that later occurred in Derry, a fictional town in Maine. A couple moves to the town just when bad things start to happen.
Though Skarsgård appears later in the film with a brief presence, Pennywise’s terror is felt throughout. The film currently holds a rating of 82% on Rotten Tomatoes and a solid 7.9/10 on IMDb.
How Welcome to Derry Expands the Stephen King Universe Beyond It and The Mist
Somehow and somewhere, the show uncovers the origins of Derry’s curse long before the Losers’ Club. Needless to say, Pennywise’s horror isn’t something brought upon; instead, Welcome to Derry subtly conveys the fact that the evil itself is a part of Derry.
The supernatural and human horrors intertwine to mirror King’s larger universe. Moreover, “Welcome to Derry” strengthens the theory that the critically acclaimed author’s stories coexist within a shared universe.
Talking about ’60s or early-era settings, the series gives a fresh yet nostalgic horror aesthetic. Therefore, the show serves as a bridge between past and future King’s adaptations. It also modernizes his lore for a new generation while honoring the classics.
Step into Derry’s chilling past and experience where the nightmare truly began. Stream Welcome to Derry this spooky season, and do let us know about how you feel about the show in the comments below!
It: Welcome to Derry is available to stream on HBO Max (US).
