Cliff Notes – Horror fans have childhood trauma reactivated after terrifying Stephen King series trailer
- The new trailer for Welcome to Derry, a prequel to Stephen King’s IT, showcases the eerie atmosphere of 1960s Derry, where a shape-shifting entity preys on children every 27 years.
- Bill Skarsgard reprises his role as Pennywise, with the trailer hinting at the return of familiar horror elements, including ominous floating red balloons and missing children’s posters.
- Producer Andrés Muschietti suggests that future seasons may explore Pennywise’s origins and historical catastrophic events linked to the character, potentially dating back to the 1930s.
Horror fans have ‘childhood trauma reactivated’ after terrifying Stephen King series trailer
The latest trailer for an eagerly anticipated horror series based on one of Stephen King’s most iconic novels is here, and it’s terrifying.
Welcome to Derry is a prequel series for King’s IT, which follows an evil shape-shifting being that preys on the children of Derry every 27 years.
It has been adapted for the big screen before, first in 1990 with Tim Curry taking on the role of the villainous Pennywise, and again in 2017 and 2019 with Bill Skarsgard taking over from the Rocky Horror Picture Show star.
The TV adaptation for HBO is set in the 1960s, before the introduction of the Losers Club that takes Pennywise down once and for all.
Ahead of its release in October, a second trailer for the show has dropped, teasing the signature nightmare fuel that comes with It.
The two-minute teaser begins with a new family moving to the quiet town of Derry, but it doesn’t take them long to realise there’s something very strange going on in the town.
The second trailer for It: Welcome To Derry has dropped (Picture: HBO)
The prequel series based on Stephen King’s iconic novel will take us back to the 1960s (Picture: HBO)
The latest trailer gives us our first glimpse of Bill Skarsgard returning to the role of Pennywise (Picture: HBO)
‘Derry is a beautiful place, but things do happen from time to time,’ a woman says, and she’s certainly not wrong, as it doesn’t take long for missing children’s posters to begin appearing.
A group of children begins researching the disappearance of one of their friends, placing them in mortal danger, signalled by an ominous, floating red balloon that fans of the franchise will be very accustomed to.
We get a quick glimpse of Skarsgard’s return to the role of Pennywise as the dancing clown lurks in the shadows with glowing yellow eyes – enough to give anyone nightmares.
There are links to King’s other work, with a quick flash of a Shawshank State Prison bus from his novel Shawshank Redemption, as well as the novella Rita Hayworth.
We also see Chris Chalk’s character Dick Hallorann, who fans of The Shining will know as the head chef of the Overlook Hotel and the man who explains the shining ability to young Danny Torrance.
Fans were quick to take to social media to air their thoughts, with many saying it looks ‘insane’ and ‘terrifying.’
Horror fans are already preparing for nightmares (Picture: HBO)
Its not the first time It has been adapted to our screens, with Tim Curry first haunting our sleep as Pennywise (Picture: Moviestore/Shutterstock)
Skarsgard played the dancing clown in the 2017 and 2019 adaptations of the novel (Picture: AP)
‘This prequel is gonna set the spooky bar high,’ Kittu said, while Titli posted: ‘The red balloons are back and so is the trauma.’
Giii echoed the same sentiment, writing: ‘childhood fear reactivated again. Thanks HBO.’
Dp_burner added: ‘finally a show that understands my fear of clowns is completely rational 🗡️ gonna need some new nightmares anyway.’
Season one hasn’t hit our screens yet, and producer and episode director Andrés Muschietti – who also helmed the It remake films – has teased what fans can expect from subsequent seasons.
Speaking to Radio TU, he revealed: ‘It’s a story that’s based on the interludes of the book. The interludes are basically chapters that reflect Mike Hanlon’s research. They’re fragments of his research.
‘For 27 years, it’s the guy trying to figure out what it is, what did it, who did it, who saw it, and all that stuff… So they talk about catastrophic events from the past, like the fire in the Black Spot…. the massacre of the Bradley Gang, a gang of bank robbers in the ’30s… and the explosion of the Kitchener Ironworks.
‘Every time [Pennywise] comes out of hibernation, there is a catastrophic event that happens at the beginning of that cycle.’
So it seems that we could go back as far as the 30s, and maybe even the 1900s to explore Pennywise’s origin story if Muschietti has anything to do with it.
IT: Welcome To Derry is released in October on HBO and Max
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