IT Prequel Series Cast Revealed WELCOME TO DERRY

HBO Max has announced the cast of its next film It prequel series Welcome to Derry. That cast includes Taylor Paige (Zola, black background by Ma Rainey), Jovan Adepo (Babylon, Guardians), Chris Gesso (Perry Mason, All dirt roads taste like salt), AND James Remar (Oppenheimer, Megalopolis). There are no details on who they will play in the series.

The series was developed by the showrunners Jason Fuchs (En: Chapter II) AND Brad Caleb Kane (Vice of Tokyo), who will also executive produce the series. Andy Muschietti and producer Barbara Muschietti are also involved in the series and Andy will most likely direct the series premiere.

When earlier it was about the mythology of the story Muschietti said, “There’s a whole mythology in the book though… Mythology is something that always has opportunities to explore. It [aka Pennywise] it has been on Earth for millions of years. It has been in contact with humans for hundreds of years, every 27 years. So you can imagine the amount of material. It’s always exciting to think about eventually exploring this mythology. It’s very exciting. But, for now, there’s nothing on the table.”

This is just speculation on my part, but I think the series could tell the story of The Black Spot, which was an important location in Derry that is talked about in Stephen King’s films and novel. The Black Spot was a nightclub founded by Mike Hanlon’s father Will and some of his friends. It was a place for black soldiers from the nearby army base to go.

It was burned by the Maine Legion of White Decency. One of the people inside was a young Dick Hallorann from The Shining, who worked in the club’s kitchen. However, Hallorann managed to get to safety… until he arrived at the Overlook Hotel.

No word yet on who will be playing Pennywise, but I sure hope they bring Bill Skarsgard Backwards! He’s open to reprising his role and said, “There’s this interesting aspect of going back in time before all of this happened. There may be a story worth exploring. Obviously, it would be a story that’s not in the book, it would be a standalone story, but obviously within the same universe. So, there might be something interesting. I think it would be fun.

There are some great nightmarish stories to be told because the shapeshifting alien creature has been around Derry killing people for a long time.

It came to Earth in a massive cataclysmic event similar to an asteroid impact, landing in a location in North America that would eventually become Derry, Maine.

Once people settled in this place, it adopted its usual 27-30 year hibernation pattern, waking up to kill and eat. Each awakening and return to hibernation is sometimes marked by a violent act, such as a mass murder or a weather event. Meanwhile, a series of child murders in Derry are never solved. It is outwardly explained that a series of murders, no matter how gruesome, go unreported if they happen in the small town. However, the real reason is that It’s influence prevents anyone from delving too deeply.

Here’s the It timeline, which features several stories a prequel could explore:

• 1715 – 1716: IT wakes up painfully.

• 1740-1743: A three-year reign of terror begins culminating in the disappearance of over three hundred settlers from Derry Township (similar to the Lost Colony of Roanoke, founded as a logging town).

• 1769 – 1770: IT awakens again.

• 1851: IT awakes when a man named John Markson poisons his own family, then commits suicide by eating a nightshade mushroom, resulting in a gruesome death.

• 1876-1879: IT awakens, then reverts to hibernation after killing a group of woodsmen who were later found near Kenduskeag Creek.

• 1904: IT wakes up when a lumberjack named Claude Heroux kills a dozen men in a bar with a single axe. Heroux was promptly pursued by a mob of citizens and hanged.

• 1906: IT goes back into hibernation when the Kitchener Ironworks explodes, killing 108 people, 88 of whom were children during an Easter egg hunt.

• 1929: IT awakens when a group of Derry citizens ambush and kill the Bradley Gang, a group of thieves and murderers. The city, including its chief of police, pretends it never happened. However, a witness later tells the story to Mike Hanlon, including seeing a clown dressed as a farmer participating in the slaying.

• 1930: IT goes back into hibernation when the Maine Legion of White Decency, a northern counterpart of the Ku Klux Klan, burns down “The Black Spot”, a nightclub known for catering to African Americans at the nearby military base. IT appears on the spot as a giant bird with balloons on its wings.

I’m curious to see how this series turns out!

Source: variety