Saturday is Halloween, which means some of us out there are gonna be watching something scary. And what could be scarier than a new episode of It: Welcome to Derry?
Released overnight on HBO Max, the 30-minute episode “A Story of Derry” (directed by Tazbah Chavez and written by Cherie Dimaline and Jasmyne Flournoy) winds back the clock to the pre-Pennywise days. Per the description, it centers on a trio of kids “venturing into the Western Wood…where they encounter a terrifying ancient spirit.”
If you remember the show, you likely remember the fourth episode and It: Chapter 2 both explaining Pennywise’s origin as a transdimensional entity that crashed landed on Earth millions of years ago, feeding on humans’ fear until a tribe of Native Americans made a dagger that kept his spirit locked to the forest. The special brings back the Native American cast of Welcome to Derry, including Kimberly Guerrero as a young Rose, Morningstar Angeline and Kiawentiio as past warriors Sesqui and Necani, and adds Zahn McClarnon to its ranks.
Since it’ll be a while before Welcome to Derry comes back with season two, “Story” is a good add-on to tide folks over and helps widen the scope of the show’s 1962 storyline. (And since season two’s supposed to be a tone shift, this may mean its cast doesn’t learn about Pennywise like season one’s did.) As previously stated, it’s on HBO Max with an ASL variant, both as their own individual entries. Happy Halloween!
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