Why We're Worried About It: Welcome To Derry

Have you ever wondered what Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård) got up to before it met the Loser's Club? "It: Welcome to Derry" is a prequel series that takes place in 1962, 27 years before the events of the 2017 film "It: Chapter One," and trailers for the program have shown off some hauntingly familiar sights. Too familiar, if we're honest about it — and that has us worried. 

The wall pasted with "missing" posters, the children being exposed to their fears in a crowded movie theater, even the costumed arm emerging from a cloudy, red-shadowed haze — it's nothing new under the sun after both parts of the big screen iteration of "It" exposed everything anyone might possibly want explained about Pennywise. We already know what it can do as a character, what the limits of its powers are, and what its motivation is. What on earth can "Welcome to Derry" show us but a rehash in which another group of brave kids puts the clown in the deep freeze for 27 years before it rises to feed again in the 1980s? 

Even worse, we know that this group of kids won't be completely successful no matter what they do. Either they'll all die at Pennywise's hands, or they'll simply knock him back into his coma somehow. How can "Welcome to Derry" bring anything new to the table? Perhaps by taking a page out of the playbook of another series set within the Stephen King universe.

There was a somewhat successful series which aired a few years before "It: Welcome to Derry": "Castle Rock," a two-season wonder which streamed on Hulu in 2018 and 2019. The series took place in the titular Castle Rock, Maine, and featured multiple Stephen King characters or relatives of said characters interacting with one another. There was Diane Torrance (Jane Levy), who went by Jackie, a version of her uncle Jack Torrance's name just to anger her parents. Jack Torrance, of course, was the protagonist of King's "The Shining."

Meanwhile, a younger version of Annie Wilkes (Lizzy Caplan) of "Misery" fame appeared during Season 2, while characters from King tales like "Needful Things" and "The Body" (filmed as "Stand by Me") were also part of the narrative. Even some familiar locales, like Shawshank State Penitentiary from "The Shawshank Redemption," turned up in the series.

"Welcome to Derry" is already doing something similar with its cast of characters. Besides Pennywise, three major characters in "Derry" will be Leroy and Charlotte Hanlon (Jovan Adepo and Taylour Paige), as well as their son Will, who is later the father of Derry historian Mike Hanlon from the "It" novel and films. Even more interesting, Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) of "The Shining" will be a major part of the show. Can expanding the "It" universe beyond the scope of the Loser's Club make the show unique enough to survive? Find out in October.