HBO’s ‘Welcome to Derry’ Explores the Dark History of Derry

Unearthing the Secret History of Derry

When Andy Muschietti brought Stephen King’s IT back to cinemas in 2017 and 2019, the films quite reasonably focused on the emotional core of the novel: seven outcast kids in 1989, and the traumatised adults they became twenty-seven years later. It was a sensible narrative decision for a two-part feature film series. Yet, any loyal reader of King’s massive 1986 novel knows that the book’s true spine isn’t just the Losers’ Club. It is the town of Derry itself, a cursed piece of Maine land where an ancient horror has taken root in the foundation of the community.

The television format allows for something the movies simply had no time to attempt. With HBO’s prequel series It: Welcome to Derry, which made its debut on 26 October 2025, screen storytelling finally gets to expand into the sprawling historical vignettes that make King’s novel such a masterclass in world-building. For years, readers have argued that the best parts of the book are Mike Hanlon’s historical interludes, the recorded interviews and local library archives detailing the cyclical violent tragedies that mark Pennywise’s waking periods throughout the twentieth century.

By shifting the lens back to the earlier decades, the series digs into the historical rot that built the town. Rather than rushing to the next monster jump-scare, the long-form format allows the narrative to spend time on the slow poison that Pennywise infuses into human hearts long before the carnage becomes obvious to the outside world.

Why the Feature Films Had to Skip the Lore

In a two-hour theatrical film, pacing is everything. The movies had to strip away the grand historical scale to keep the focus firmly on the Losers’ Club. That meant leaving out massive chunks of lore, such as the tragic fire at the Black Spot, the 1906 Bradley Gang shootout, and the disastrous collapse of the Ironworks back in 1891. These historical events are not mere background flavour in King’s writing; they are the proof that Derry itself is complicit in the horror.

The prequel series directly tackles these missing historical layers. The cast brings key background figures from the lore into clear focus, including Jovan Adepo as Leroy Hanlon, Taylour Paige as Charlotte Hanlon, Chris Chalk as Dick Hallorann, and James Remar as General Francis Shaw. Bill Skarsgård also returns to wear the white paint and ruff of Pennywise once again. Seeing Dick Hallorann in the cast is a particularly wonderful nod for King enthusiasts, as the character forms a direct bridge between the events in Derry and the terrifying halls of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining.

If you ask me, this broad canvas is precisely how King’s longer works ought to be tackled. When a studio compresses an eleven-hundred-page epic into a brief feature run, the intricate fabric of the setting is usually the first casualty. We saw similar structural choices when studying Stephen King adaptations across various platforms, where serialised television almost always wins out over film when it comes to capturing the author’s world-building.

Connecting the Threads Across King’s Universe

What makes this historical focus so satisfying for readers is the way Stephen King constructs his shared universe. Derry is not an isolated stage set; it is a recurring nexus of tragedy across dozens of stories, from Insomnia to 11.22.63. By anchoring the narrative in the mid-twentieth century, the series gets to explore how systemic cruelty, racial tension, and local corruption feed the shape-shifting entity lurking in the sewers beneath the streets.

The thematic depth of the town’s history has also sparked wider critical discussions about how Maine’s regional heritage is depicted on screen, something that local scholars have examined through reframing King’s Derry through a Wabanaki lens. Understanding that Pennywise is a parasite that feeds on human bigotry and apathy makes the monster far more frightening than a simple creature wearing a clown suit.

With HBO confirming Season 2 for IT: Welcome to Derry, viewers can look forward to even deeper digs into the archives of Maine’s most unfortunate town. For readers who spent decades poring over the fine print of Mike Hanlon’s notebook, seeing the dark history of the place brought to life with this level of patience is long overdue.