Will it be worth the watch? IT: Welcome to Derry an HBO Max Original Series

By Melanie Ramirez, Writer | October 14, 2025

Stephen King at the PEN Literary Gala at the American Natural History Museum in 2018 courtesy of Associate Press

This October, IT: Welcome to Derry is set to premiere on the 26th as an original prequel series to the IT franchise, streaming exclusively on HBO Max.

As some would know the original novel, "IT" written by Stephen King was published on September 15, 1986 making it 39 years old following this week.

The novel is set in fictional called Derry Maine and follows an 11 to 12 year old boy named William "Bill" Denbrough and his self-titles "Losers Club" group of friends: Edward "Eddie: Kaspbrak, Richard "Richie" Tozier, Stanley "Stan" Uris, Beverly Marsh, Benjamin "Ben" Hanscom, and Michael "Mike" Hanlon as they get terrorized by an interdimensional spider alien that has taken on the alias of "Pennywise the Dancing Clown " or just "Pennywise" after the death of Bill's little brother Georgie.

With a rating of 4.6 stars the novel's setting switches between the summer of 1957-1958 when the losers club are children and the years 1984-1985, 27 years later, when the group all came back to Derry as adults.

On November 18, 1980 the TV miniseries "IT" directed by Tommy Lee Wallace had been released and set the ball rolling for the franchise's rising popularity into modern times.

Like the novel this series followed a similar format and plot. However the differences lie in the fact part one solely follows the group in their preteen years and part two follows the group 30 years later into adulthood.

The miniseries features Tim Curry as Pennywise. Still set in Derry Maine but in 1960 then in 1990. The series helped pave the way for future adaptions as it proved the possibility of adapting complex works as well as proving the franchise's marketability.

The miniseries was a success years later on, in 2017, when another adaption came out, this time featuring Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise.

With the same title as the novel the 2017 film has managed to gain a 7.3 on IMDb. Just like before the film follows the same story and plots of both the novel and miniseries.

However unlike its predecessor the 2017 film only focuses on the group's preteen years during the summer of 1989. Things like the relationship dynamic between the two of the main bullies Henry Bowers and Patrick Hockstetter have been removed entirely. A majority of Patrick's personality had been cut out. The characters of Richie and Mike have been changed slightly and Beverly had been changed entirely.

Despite all these seemingly major changes a good chunk of fans believe the film to be more accurate to the novel than the original 1990 adaption.

On September 9, 2019 "IT Chapter Two" was released as a sequel to the 2017 film.

It follows the losers club as adults coming back 27 years later in 2016 in order to get rid of Pennywise for good using "The Ritual of Chüd," Bill Skarsgard had come back to reprise his role. Meanwhile other famous actors were brought on to play the adult versions of the losers cub. Bill Hader was cast to play Richie, James McAvoy, as Bill and Jessica Chastain as Beverly.

Fast forward to 2025 and we now have "IT: Welcome to Derry" being made thanks to the previous films' success being directly by Andy Muschietti who directed the previous two "IT" films in 2017 and 2019.

This new original series will be set during the 1960s and follow a new group of kids, one of which had been confirmed to be Mike's grandfather, Leroy Hanlon, as they discover the origins of Pennywise and the events that lead up to the events from 2017 film.

Aside from that the series will also be building onto the connection though all of King's works, particularly the series will be connecting the "IT" universe to "The Shining" universe through a young Dick Halloran.