New IT series brings back Stephen King's Pennywise the Clown but with one major difference

Stephen King fans have finally been gifted with a Welcome to Derry trailer.

It was confirmed back in 2023 that King's It was getting a prequel series which will document the years leading up to the events that unfolded in the critically acclaimed horror author's 1986 book.

There's since been three movie adaptions of It, the most recent being 2019's It Chapter Two where Bill Skarsgård reprised his role as the infamous Pennywise.

Speaking about the prequel at the time of the announcement two years ago, siblings Andy and Barbara Muschietti, who are producing the series, said: "As teenagers, we took turns reading chapters of Stephen King’s It until the thick paperback fell to pieces.

“It is an epic story that contains multitudes, far beyond what we could explore in our It movies. We can’t wait to share the depths of Steve’s novel, in all its heart, humor, humanity and horror."

Now the trailer has finally dropped for the prequel. See it here:

It fans have since shared their excitement about the show, which will be released this fall.

"Damnn just when I thought I’d moved past my fear of clowns, Pennywise pulls me back in," one person said. "Welcome to Derry isn’t just a prequel it looks like it’s a deep dive into the nightmares that started it all. Can't wait."

Someone else wrote: "After a long time... Can't wait to watch the series!!"

"I have waited 6 years for a prequel or a sequel or something from the IT franchise," added a third.

While Welcome to Derry is somewhat based off King's well-loved novel and Pennywise's story, the prequel has been developed by the Muschiettis and Jason Fuchs.

With this in mind, unlike other film and TV projects, King isn't directly tied to Welcome to Derry. He has voiced his support for it, however.

Speaking back in 2022, King said it was an 'interesting' prospect.

Stephen King didn't pen the script for Welcome to Derry (HBO Max)

"It’s an interesting possibility to do that," he said of the prequel on The Losers Club Podcast. "[The Muschiettis] talked about a prequel. Which struck me as an okay idea. I’d love to see what Pennywise was up to 27 years before the ’50s. Or, I guess it would be the ’80s, because they updated the [setting]. So it would be, you know, before World War 2 or something."

King added: "It’ll be interesting to see what will happen with that."

Elsewhere, Andy Muschietti confirmed that King has given his seal of approval on the script.

"Obviously, as we progressed, we kept showing him the work, and he approved the first draft of the script," he told Fangoria.

"Then we showed him where we would take the future seasons of the show. He trusts us because of what we did with the movies, which he loved as much as audiences did."

Andy directed both the 2017 and 2019 adaptions of It starring Skarsgård, while Barbara worked on them as a producer.