IT: Welcome to Derry
HBO Max
HBO Max has a new Sunday night must-watch series. That show is The Chair Company. Another show, one HBO wants to be a big hit, is IT: Welcome to Derry, a prequel to the original book and the two most recent theatrical films about the origins of the evil in the town and its manifestation in Pennywise the Clown.
IT: Welcome to Derry aired its first episode last night, but it is rushing out the second one in time for Halloween this Friday. HBO Max has announced it will debut on Friday, October 31 at 12 AM PT, 3 AM ET. It will also air in the normal slot of 9 PM ET on Sunday, November 2, lest people not hear this news and wonder why episode 2 isn’t on.
The idea, of course, is to have something spooky to watch on Halloween, but have it not interfere with your nightly plans, be they trick-or-treating or a frat party. You can watch it at any point during the day. The season is eight episodes long, but it seems to want to be 24 episodes, according to its creator. In an interview with Variety, co-creators Andy and Barbara Muschietti talked about the plan for IT: Welcome to Derry, which is actually an anthology set across different time periods:
“Our big story arc involves three seasons, mainly based on the three critical cycles of Pennywise, which are 1962, 1935 and 1908.”
IT: Welcome to Derry
HBO Max
Muschietti seems confident this will happen, despite no immediate, announced plan from HBO that three seasons will actually air.
“There are a lot of Easter eggs,” Andy said, “And over the course of these three seasons, we’re gonna probably get closer to the meaning of the turtle, how it affects the behavior of our characters and the mythological backstory.” The Turtle, so far, is seen as a school mascot promoting taking cover during the Cold War.
Unless viewership is awful, it seems probable that the three-season plan may come together. HBO Max is always looking for new hits in its post-Game of Thrones era, though what happens with the service may rely on a potential sale of its IP to rival companies, discussions which are currently ongoing.
Interest should be there. The first IT movie by Muschietti in 2017 made $704 million worldwide. The second, IT: Chapter 2, made $473 million. Still solid for a movie that was much, much worse. Right now, IT: Welcome to Derry has 77% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and an 82% from audiences, who are often hard to please when it comes to horror adaptations. After watching episode 1, it’s easy to see how it both channels through lines of the main movies, and also has its own brand of utter insanity (just watch the first five minutes). Expect it to be a hit.
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