HBOMax - It: Welcome to Derry – Pennywise's terrifying return takes over the streets of New York

By Mulder, 23 october 2025

A few days before Halloween, New York woke up to a sky dotted with red balloons. Hanging from streetlights, bridges, and subway entrances, they seemed harmless at first glance—until passersby realized the sinister meaning behind this poetic vision: Pennywise is back. To mark the global launch of It: Welcome to Derry, HBO Max offered New York City an immersive experience that was as grandiose as it was disturbing. New Yorkers were treated to a life-size preview of the nightmare, a meticulously orchestrated urban campaign, simultaneously deployed in the world's largest cities—from New York to Tokyo, Madrid, São Paulo, and Dubai. For 48 hours, the streets were no longer familiar: figures dressed in 1960s clothing handed out postcards stamped with the Derry seal, and at dusk, Pennywise, played by Bill Skarsgård, emerged from a shuttle on the Seine before disappearing into the mist.

This viral activation transformed fear into a collective spectacle. New Yorkers flooded social media with images, both fascinated and terrified by this invasion of red symbols. The idea was simple but incredibly effective: to remind us that fear does not lurk in the sewers, but prowls in broad daylight, in the daily lives of city dwellers. This is the power of HBO Max's campaign, which reinvents the promotion of a horror series as an experience of urban contamination, where fiction and reality merge.

The series It: Welcome to Derry arrives on October 27 on HBO Max, with one episode airing each week until December 15. This project is not simply an extension of the films It (2017) and It: Chapter 2 (2019), but a return to the origins of evil. Set in the 1960s, the series traces the roots of the terror buried in the cursed soil of Derry, long before the “Losers Club” faced their nightmares. Andy Muschietti, who was already behind the camera for the two feature films, directs the first four episodes and ensures the visual and emotional continuity of the myth. Alongside him, Barbara Muschietti, Jason Fuchs, and Brad Caleb Kane co-pilot this ambitious prequel, produced by Warner Bros. Television, Double Dream, and FiveTen Productions. The team focused on meticulous period realism, filming in Toronto, Hamilton, and Port Hope—the latter, already the setting for Derry in the films, plunging its inhabitants back into familiar angst.

The cast includes Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, Taylour Paige, James Remar, Stephen Rider, and Madeleine Stowe, while Bill Skarsgård intensely reprises his role as Pennywise, in addition to co-producing the series. His return is much more than a choice of continuity: it is a promise. In the clown's twisted gaze, the entire mythology of Derry comes back to life. Where other horror franchises get lost in repetition, It: Welcome to Derry chooses depth. Showrunners Jason Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane conceived the series as a “reverse archaeology of horror,” with each season revealing an earlier era—from 1962 to 1935, then 1908—retracing the cycles of the curse that has plagued the town for generations. This approach gives the story a historical and metaphysical dimension rare for a horror series, reminiscent of Stephen King's taste for cyclical curses and the moral decline of small American communities.

Behind the scenes, Andy Muschietti returns to his signature style: a blend of tender characters and visceral horror. He doesn't seek to shock with gore, but to unsettle with unease. The trailer reflects this: deserted alleys, flickering streetlights, a silhouette disappearing just out of frame. The viewer feels that thrill unique to Stephen King, that sense that something indefinable is amiss in the ordinary world. This aesthetic choice revives an atmospheric horror that is more psychological than spectacular. And thanks to the music of Benjamin Wallfisch, the faithful composer of the film diptych, the series maintains a sonic consistency where each note seems to herald a presence lurking underground.

Producers Shelley Meals, Roy Lee, Dan Lin, Lyn Lucibellon, and Sarah Rath ensure that It: Welcome to Derry remains more than just an exploitation of a successful brand: it is a narrative and emotional extension of the myth. The writing team—Jason Fuchs, Austin Guzman, Guadalis Del Carmen, Gabe Hobson, Helen Shang, and Cord Jefferson—infuses the story with social nuances, exploring the racial tensions and Cold War paranoia that permeated the United States in the 1960s. This choice makes the series as terrifying as it is intelligent, a mirror of its times, in the best tradition of Stephen King.

For HBO Max, this series is much more than a Halloween release: it's a showcase of expertise and a global celebration of collective fear. By taking over the streets of Paris and other major cities, the platform has pulled off a rare marketing coup, reviving both the horror genre and the public's taste for immersive experiences. When Bill Skarsgård reappears under the white makeup and red balloon, it's not just a monster returning, it's an entire cultural legacy resurfacing. It: Welcome to Derry doesn't just open a new chapter in the myth: it reminds us that, in Stephen King's universe, fear never goes away. It lies dormant. It's just waiting for a new red balloon to rise to the surface.

Synopsis:
Strange events unfold in the town of Derry in the 1960s, involving Pennywise the clown, a mysterious character who haunts Derry.

It: Welcome to Derry
Directed by Andy Muschietti
Showrunners: Jason Fuchs, Brad Caleb Kane
Executive producers: Jason Fuchs, Brad Caleb Kane, Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, Shelley Meals, Roy Lee, Dan Lin, Bill Skarsgård
Producers: Lyn Lucibellon Sarah Rath
Written by Jason Fuchs, Austin Guzman, Guadalis Del Carmen, Gabe Hobson, Helen Shang, Brad Caleb Kane, Cord Jefferson, Brad Caleb Kane
Based on characters created by Stephen King
Developed by Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, Jason Fuchs
Starring Taylour Paige, Jovan Adepo, Blake Cameron James, Chris Chalk, James Remar, Stephen Rider, Madeleine Stowe, Rudy Mancuso, Clara Stack, Amanda Christine, Mikkal Karim-Fidler, Bill Skarsgård
Director of photography: Rasmus Heise
Editing: Esther Sokolow, Glenn Garland, Matthew V. Colonna
Editing: (under the name Matthew V. Ace Colonna) / (under the name Matthew Colonn
Music: Benjamin Wallfisch
Production companies: HBO, Warner Bros. Television, Double Dream, FiveTen Productions
Release dates: October 2, 2025 (United States),
Running time: 8 episodes