Following the success of two popular movies, IT: Welcome to Derry revisits Stephen King’s terrifying town, delving into the history of the evil that haunts it. Set in the 1960s, the series aims to reveal the origins of Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) and its connection to Derry, while also building a larger on-screen universe based on King’s work, with references to places like the setting of The Shining and Shawshank Penitentiary. The show will also examine how trauma affects generations and how societal problems can create an environment where fear thrives.
The 2017 IT movie resonated with audiences largely because of the strong bond between the young actors playing the Losers’ Club, turning a horror story into a moving tale of friendship and courage. Marketing for IT: Welcome to Derry initially highlighted a new group of kids, leading viewers to expect a new Losers’ Club would be central to the story. While the show starts by building on this expectation, introducing a fresh group of outcasts facing the town’s darkness, the first episode takes a surprising turn, indicating the series won’t simply retread familiar ground.
Warning: Spoilers below for IT: Welcome to Derry, Episode 1
IT: Welcome to Derry Losers’ Club Feels Too Familiar to the Movie’s
The first episode of Welcome to Derry focuses on Matty, a 12-year-old boy who sneaks into the local movie theater to escape his difficult home life. He’s being abused by his father, who recently gave him a black eye. This trauma makes Matty vulnerable to Pennywise. One snowy night, Matty attempts to run away, asking a passing family for a ride. He initially believes he’s found safety, but the car ride is actually a trick orchestrated by Pennywise to exploit Matty’s fears before killing him. Similar to how Georgie’s death in the IT movie brought the Losers’ Club together, Matty’s death causes a new group of children to unite.
The young characters in Welcome to Derry each have distinct personalities and feel like they could be the show’s main focus. There’s Terry (Mikkal Karim-Fidler), a Jewish boy who prefers comic books to religious study. He and his best friend, Phil (Jack Molloy Legault), went to a birthday party for a boy named Matty after being offered candy as a reward, and now feel bad about Matty’s disappearance, wishing they’d been kinder to him when he was still around. Phil also has a little sister, Susie (Matilda Legault), who joins the group when their parents can’t find someone to babysit.
The new group of kids investigating the disappearances in IT: Welcome to Derry includes Lilly Stack, nicknamed “Loony” after a traumatic event. Following the gruesome death of her father in an accident at the Derry pickle factory – which she witnessed – Lilly suffered a mental breakdown and was sent to Juniper Hill Asylum. The group also includes Ronnie Grogan, whose father, Hank, is the local movie theater projectionist. Because Hank is Black and was one of the last people to see the missing boy, Matty, the police are quick to suspect him.
Similar to the original IT movie, a new group of friends starts experiencing strange, unexplainable events after one of them, Matty, disappears. They quickly suspect his vanishing is connected to the movie Matty was watching the night he died – The Music Man. It appears the new series, IT: Welcome to Derry, will follow these kids as they investigate Pennywise, mirroring the plot of the first film. They even have a clubhouse in an old observatory with a great view of Derry. However, the series is smartly leading viewers to believe one thing, only to deliver a surprising twist at the end of the first episode.
How IT: Welcome to Derry Subvert Expectations
In the final moments of the first episode of IT: Welcome to Derry, Ronnie takes the kids to a secret screening of The Music Man, hoping to find some answers. While Ronnie checks out the projection room, the rest of the new Losers’ Club are alone in the theater. They’re shocked when Matty appears inside the movie, blaming them for what happened to him. Suddenly, the terrifying creature that killed Matty bursts out of the screen, causing chaos.
The creature brutally hunts and kills the children, leaving their bodies scattered and broken. Terry, Phil, and even young Susie are among those who die. Only Lilly, who manages to escape, and Ronnie, who was safely in the projection room, survive. IT: Welcome to Derry is shockingly violent, completely subverting expectations and killing off the characters we believed would be safe.
The episode’s big surprise works so well because it takes the time to develop each child’s personality and struggles. This makes their sudden deaths genuinely shocking, rather than a typical horror trope. It’s also a strong statement that this series will be different from the movies. The show makes it clear it won’t just repeat familiar storylines, and that any character could be in danger, forging its own unique and unpredictable direction.
New episodes of IT: Welcome to Derry premiere on HBO every Sunday.
What did you think of the surprise ending in the premiere of IT: Welcome to Derry? Share your thoughts in the comments and join the discussion in the ComicBook Forum!
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2025-10-27 05:12