‘How did It become Pennywise?’ Andy and Barbara Muschietti reveal terrifying secrets of new HBO spin-off ‘Welcome to Derry’

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Things can get spooky at Comic-Con after dark. And thanks the combination of Stephen King and the filmmaking team of Andy andBarbara Muschietti, the It: Welcome to Derry panel delivered the scares Saturday night in San Diego.

The sibling duo shared a new teaser trailer (below), played the opening scene of their upcoming HBO series, which fleshes out stories from King’s sprawling 1986 novel, and explained the impetus behind the initial eight-episode season.

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"One of the most fascinating things about the book is the cryptic factor, which is, you hear the story, you know certain things, but you never get to the end of anything. At the end of the book, nobody knows what the hell It is, what does it want? Who is Bob Gray? How did it all happen? We are going to ruin all this," Andy quipped, "by unveiling some of these mysteries, but with very good taste."

Here’s everything we learned about the show, which will debut this October, just in time for Halloween.

What’s the backstory?

The Muschiettis spent the better part of a decade developing and producing the blockbuster It (2017) and It Chapter 2 (2019), but, as Andy Muschietti explains, the King book, which clocks in at 1,000-plus pages, was just too expansive to cover in his two films. There was still, as King might say, meat on the bone.

Apart from all the joy that the two movies brought to us, there was also a frustration for not being able to tell a larger story. So there was always this idea of somehow like going back and digging into the book. Coming out of the movies with Bill, Bill Skarsgård, we had conversations. We came out exhausted, but excited about the whole experience, and we always fantasized about doing an origin story: How did It become Pennywise? Which is one of the big mysteries in the book, and there's mention of this character Bill Gray. So the conversations were about that. How do we tell the story? And for a second it was a movie, and then, we both went our ways.

Stephen Rider and Clara StackBrooke Palmer/HBO

Years passed, but the Muschiettis just couldn’t shake Pennywise. They also began to entertain the idea of a series to tease out the untapped material. "There are more opportunities with a series," says Andy. "There is a larger canvas to explore the nuances of the characters." Once the had the bones of an idea, they took it to HBO.

What's the plot?

While the main story of the Losers Club, as both teens and adults, was told in the two films, there were parts of King's novel, notably the sections known as the interludes, that were only hinted at. As the Losers grow up and leave Derry, one of them, Mike Hanlon, stays behind to research the tragic events that occur every 27 years. Season 1 will focus on the 1962 burning of the Black Spot, a nightclub that catered to the Black airmen at the local base.

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Barbara Muschietti says the plan is for three seasons and will go back further in time with each one. "We talked to Stephen King — he's the greatest, and he was very supportive — and he had the idea of actually going backwards in time, so basically hitting Pennywise's cycles backwards. And that's why our first season of TV is in '62."

Jovan Adepo and Taylour PaigeHBO

"There's a reason why it goes backwards, but we can't tell you yet," Andy continues. "Then we go to 1935, and then we go to 1908, in theory," presuming the show gets renewed for multiple seasons. Each season will cover the mysterious events leading up to the specific catastrophe of each era. "We we're using [each season] as a base for the big events of the interludes — the burning of the Black Spot, the massacre of the Bradley Gang and the explosion of the Kitchner Ironworks — described in the books."

"If you remember the movie, Mike is talking to his granddad in the beginning of the movie. This is the story of that guy, among others," says Andy, adding that the series will also explore "all the connections with the characters seen in the movie. And some will be obvious, some will not. Some will be revealed later on ... and the way they are connected, it is part of the drama, the comedy, and the horror of the stories."

The panel featured the opening of Welcome to Derry, where a young boy (Miles Ekhardt) from a troubled home is chased from a movie theater after sneaking in to watch The Music Man ("You've got trouble, right here in River City!"). The boy, who sucks on a pacifier as a coping mechanism, hitches a ride with a family who asks where he's heading. "Anywhere but Derry," he replies. But the family is not what they seem and the scene ends with the car back in Derry and the boy's pacifier floating into the familiar sewers as the title comes up.

The opening scene of It: Welcome to DerryBrooke Palmer/HBO

Who’s in the cast?

In addition to Skarsgård returning as a certain dancing clown, the ensemble includes Taylour Paige, Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, James Remar, Stephen Rider, Madeleine Stowe, and Rudy Mancuso.

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While Andy Muschietti declined to divulge everyone's roles, he did note that Chalk is playing someone familiar to all King fans. "There's another character that you might know from The Shining, which is Dick Hallorann. That's not a surprise. It's in the book. He plays a very little role as as a character in the book. He has a bigger role in this one. It's a bit of a spoiler, but I think you deserve it."

Chris Chalk plays a young Dick Hallorann, who has a formative experience in Derry years before the events of The Shining.Brooke Palmer/HBO

Who's the creative team?

In addition to the Musciettis, the series was developed by Jason Fuchs, who also wrote the teleplay for the first episode. Fuchs is also serving as co-showrunner with Brad Caleb Kane. The Muschiettis, Fuchs, Kane, Skarsgård, David Coatsworth, Shelley Meals, Roy Lee, and Dan Lin are executive producers. Andy Muschietti is also directing multiple episodes, which he describes as "basically eight movies."

What's the awards history of It?

The first TV adaptation of It was the acclaimed 1990 miniseries starring Tim Curry as Pennywise. That was nominated for Emmys for music composition (which it won) and editing (which it lost). It also won the People's Choice Award for Best Miniseries and an Eddie Award for best editing.

While they were box-office smashes with strong reviews, the It films didn't earn any Oscar nods. The first film did receive an MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Team for its teenaged Losers Club along with a Golden Trailer Award for Best Horror and also wound up on several year-end top 10 lists. For the sequel, Bill Hader earned a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor.

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Meanwhile, the previous HBO adaptation of a King work, 2020's The Outsider, earned a Best Guest Actor Emmy nomination for Jason Bateman.

Derry in 1962HBO

When and where does it air?

The first of eight It: Welcome to Derry episodes will premiere in October (the network has yet to specify a date) on HBO and HBO Max, with episodes dropping weekly afterwards.

Watch the first teaser:

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