The prequel series, titled Welcome to Derry, was announced in March. However, since its announcement, HBO Max only revealed the title as well as its prequel status to the It films, which were released in 2017 and 2019 respectively. The report comes courtesy of Variety and it reveals that HBO Max tapped Jason Fuchs and Bradley Caleb Kane to helm the show. Andy Muschietti and his sister Barbara Muschietti will reportedly serve as co-producers. Andy is a scriptwriter cum director with a portfolio that includes both IT films as well as Mama. His sister, Barbara, is a producer and scriptwriter that worked on both It films and Mama. The prequel series will be also set in Derry, a fictional city in Maine beset by Pennywise the Clown who made his first entry in 1715 through an asteroid. He appears every 27 years to feed on the town’s young, after which he goes into hibernation. Given that Welcome to Derry is a prequel to It, its events will occur long before that of the horror flicks. As a result, the movie’s production team will have several decades of history to explore. However, there are speculations that it will be set in the 1960s, many years before the foundation of The Losers Clubs. Fuchs is not new to the It franchise as he served as co-producer on the second film. He is a writer whose work includes Pan, Ice Age: Continental Drift, Wonder Woman, and I Still See You. According to Variety, Fuchs wrote the teleplay for the series’s pilot using a story he co-wrote with the Muschietti siblings. Kane has also worked on numerous movies and shows, even providing the singing voice to Disney’s Aladdin many years ago. More importantly, he has served as executive producer and writer on numerous projects, including Crash, Fringe, and Lodge 49. He also co-wrote Warrior and Tokyo Vice, among others. Given that work is ongoing on Welcome to Derry’s script and the series hired showrunners already, it appears that production will begin soon. Unfortunately, it appears King will not be involved with the show. During an interview with The Losers Club podcast, the 75-year-old author had the following to say, “I don’t have a relationship to Pennywise now. Because I have no intention of going back to IT… it’s in the hands of people who are doing this… Andy and Barbara [Muschietti] are going to do Welcome to Derry, they’re talking about it anyway. And they’ve got sort of a handshake deal, I think, with HBO Max.” It’s highly unlikely that the It prequel series will come out soon after being confirmed earlier this year. Most likely, the show will premiere in 2024.
