Welcome to Derry: Plot, Cast, and Trailer

Contents:

• Derry and the Losers: Key Facts About the Series
• It as a Symbol Reflecting the State of the Nation, Not Just a Clown
• Interpreting American Culture Through the Prism of Jungian Psychology in King's Work
• Muschietti's Methods for Unanswered Questions
• Dive Into the World of "Welcome to Derry": Impact Beyond the Pages

A new project called "Welcome to Derry" is coming to screens - a spin-off based on the "It" duology. The script for this work draws on fragments of Stephen King's novel that were not included in the film and offers a more detailed exploration of the origins and nature of Pennywise, the Dancing Clown. Film journalist Klara Khomenko, who is well acquainted with the book and left negative reviews of the unsuccessful film "It Chapter Two," shares her thoughts on why the series created by Andres Muschietti deserves the attention of viewers.

Derry and the Losers: Key Facts About the Series

On October 26, just before Halloween, HBO will premiere the first episode of "Welcome to Derry" – a project created by the team that worked on the film adaptation of "It", under the direction of Argentine directors Andrés and Bárbara Muschietti. The events unfold in 1962. Leroy Hanlon, a military man, and his wife arrive at a new base located in the immediate vicinity of Derry.

The couple believes that a small town in the northern United States is ideal for their life, but they soon realize that they made the wrong choice. Meanwhile, their son, along with his new friends from school, is trying to solve the mystery of his classmates' murders.

The cast of this series does not include superstars, as is often the case in films, but there are several well-known personalities. Thus, Jovan Adepo, known for his role as Will Reeves in Watchmen, plays a character named Leroy Hanlon. General Shaw is played by James Remar, who is remembered by viewers for his role as Harry Morgan, the maniac's father in Dexter. The role of the local police chief went to Canadian actor Peter Outerbridge, who previously played an insurance agent and the central victim William Easton in Saw V. Chris Chalk, known for his role as Paul Drake in Perry Mason, played the iconic role of Dick Hallorann.

However, the most significant event was the return of Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise. This is important not only because of the possibility of replacing the actor with another. Initially, Andrés Muschietti had doubts about whether Pennywise would even be featured in his series. If that were the case, Welcome to Derry could have been transformed from a horror series into a social drama. This would have been disappointing for horror fans and likely would have led to a decline in interest. However, fans of Stephen King's works, and the novel in particular, could have been pleased: the part of It that allows the book to lay claim to the status of the great American novel would finally be revealed on screen.

"It" as a symbol reflecting the state of the nation, not just a clown

One of the outstanding characteristics of Stephen King's work is his ability to honestly present the fears that truly matter. In Christine, he touches on the theme of toxic masculinity. "Carrie" focuses on school bullying and religious fanaticism. "Pet Sematary" explores the power of human grief. To convey this emotion more deeply, King first finds a way to kill a small child, then transforms him into a murderer and a vessel for an ancient evil. In the early 1980s, this shocking approach horrified even those close to him, and the author himself was hesitant to publish the novel.

The novel "It" serves as a prime example, igniting controversy to this day. It has been criticized for its horrific violence and explicit scenes of teenage sex, which have shocked both readers and reviewers since its publication in 1986. However, Stephen King, using truly creepy techniques, not only depicts the coming-of-age of seven schoolchildren from a small town, but also highlights the contrast between the myths and reality of the "golden age" - the 1950s, which in the United States is associated with an era of innocence and prosperity.

It's easy to trace the source of this myth. In the post-war years, America experienced rapid economic growth. The supply of jobs was extensive, and wages were decent. The suburbs were rapidly expanding: people began moving into new private houses, which began to be built en masse in the 1950s according to standardized designs. At this time, shopping malls in their modern form also emerged, where shelves were filled with goods made in the United States itself. Televisions and refrigerators became affordable for almost every family.

During this period, the ideal of the "American Dream" was finally established, representing a picture: a comfortable home, two cars, a man whose salary provides for the family, and a woman whose life is entirely devoted to her husband and children. However, behind this idyll lurked the harsh reality of racial segregation and "sundown towns," where Black Americans were subjected to arbitrary rule after dark.

The racist "Jim Crow laws" were most pronounced in the South, but the situation in the North was far from better. In most northern states, black residents were unable to vote, interracial marriages were prohibited, and at the famous Yale University, white Americans not only avoided communicating with blacks but also refused admission to Jews.

Laws Jim Crow is a set of racist laws and social norms that existed in the United States from the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, roughly from 1877 to 1965. Under these laws, Black and white Americans were forced to use separate schools, restaurants, restrooms, hospitals, cemeteries, and even drinking fountains. On public transportation, Black people were required to occupy the back seats of buses, leaving the front seats for white passengers. Furthermore, they were barred from voting through barriers such as voting taxes and literacy tests. These laws effectively restricted Black people's access to high-paying jobs and higher education.

These laws legalized racial segregation, which meant officially separating white and Black people in areas such as education, transportation, healthcare, housing, and even public behavior.

Expressing discontent about this situation was fraught with serious risks: you could end up with either members of the Ku Klux Klan or FBI agents, who were actively pursuing "Reds" across the country, raiding your home. At the time, the official US position was that communists posed a far more serious threat than robbers and murderers. Even the slightest suspicion that you disapprove of American laws could lead to the loss of everything, including your job and personal freedom.

Standing out amid all these events was the Korean War, during which the United States suffered nearly 40,000 casualties. In his book, The Korean War 1950–53: The Unfinished Confrontation, Max Hastings describes how veterans returning from the front were welcomed home: “When Private Warren Avery returned to his Connecticut hometown after serving in the army, a woman on the street asked him grumpily, ‘What, finally got out of prison?’” This underscores how the country ignored not only the war itself but also its tragic consequences for four decades.

Jungian Psychology in King’s Interpretations of American Culture

Horrible violence directed at large segments of the population, as well as war and persecution, can hardly be considered characteristics of the “age of innocence.” At the same time, in the United States during the Reagan presidency, the myth of the "golden fifties" became widespread and very popular.

During this period, Stephen King began work on "It," which tells the story of the seemingly prosperous town of Derry. Residents here manage to turn a blind eye to horrific events for decades. On the outside, the houses are neat, but underneath, filth, blood, and corpses lurk. Pennywise the Clown symbolizes the "collective shadow," a collection of fears and prejudices that most people prefer not to notice in themselves, so they push them onto others or hide them in the "sewers" of their subconscious.

Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist Carl Jung, the author of the concept of the "collective shadow," explores how this phenomenon influences wars, massacres, and discrimination on various grounds. In "It," the protagonist Michael Hanlon connects the image of Pennywise with the brutal events in Derry, when locals mercilessly dealt with the Bradley gang and set fire to a club where black soldiers and their guests were staying. These events are described in special interlude chapters that lack supernatural elements, and Pennywise appears only as an ordinary participant in the events. Here is one of the most striking excerpts:

Mr. Keane shook his head slightly and looked up with a smile.

It is interesting how people make sense of the events unfolding around them at critical moments, and even more curious how they remember those events when Everything comes to an end. You can hear as many as sixteen different stories, and none of them will be identical to the others. Consider, for example, this clown's arsenal...

"A weapon?" I asked. "So he used one too?"

"That's right," Mr. Keene agreed, nodding. "At the moment I noticed him, he appeared to be using a Winchester with a rotating bolt, and it only occurred to me later that I thought so because I had experience shooting a similar Winchester myself. Biff Marlowe thought the clown was firing a Remington, since he also had that type of weapon. And when I asked Jimmy the question, he said the clown was using a Springfield, just like his. Interesting, isn't it? <…> The shooting started at two twenty-five, the sun was shining brightly, but strangely, this clown didn't cast a shadow. I didn't dismiss it at all.

The interludes in the novel "It" not only give it the character of a horror story but also make it a kind of social study. None of these interludes were included in the film adaptations. This is understandable: the novel's scope is so vast that the 1990 miniseries and the 2017-2019 duology barely managed to fit even the key events that advance the main plot. Moreover, the creators in both cases shifted the childhood of the main characters, called the Losers, to the decades when they themselves were children—that is, the 1960s and 1980s, respectively. In this way, the authors sought to adapt the story to modern audiences by building nostalgic associations—and, it must be said, their efforts were quite successful. However, this resulted in the loss of an element that added a special layering to the novel, which was completely lost in the adaptations.

Muschietti's Methods in Unanswered Questions

The director of the two "It" films, Andres Muschietti, shared his thoughts on the connection between Pennywise and the town of Derry, as well as the broader connection to America as a whole. In one of his interviews, he noted: "The line between how Pennywise affects the town and the behavior of the inhabitants of any American town becomes unclear. Every terrible incident described in the book could have happened without the participation of a monster."

There was another circumstance that attracted the attention of the director, as well as many fans of the original work. He sought to delve deeper into the nature of Pennywise and its origin. The book mentions that It emerged from a certain void in the spiritual realm, referred to as the "macroverse." This concept is part of a larger picture of the universe, which Stephen King speaks about, in particular, in his fantasy series "The Dark Tower." But what exactly is this "macroverse"? If it really is a void, then how could something so terrifying arise in it? What is the nature of It's existence and what laws govern its existence? Moreover, how does the Turtle, an entity that supported the Losers in the book but remained on the sidelines of the screen adaptations, fit into this picture?

When Stephen King visited Canada while filming It, Muschietti asked him a series of questions. However, as it turned out, the writer didn't have the answers. Many of these questions hadn't even occurred to him during the four years he spent writing the novel. As a result, Muschietti and Bill Skarsgård, who played Pennywise, began searching for their own explanations.

The idea for the series arose from these discussions, with the main goal being to unify Pennywise's story and explore his connections to the town and its inhabitants. Muschietti plans for the series to consist of three seasons, each based on one of the novel's interludes: the Black Spot fire, the Bradley gang's crime spree, and the massacre in the logging village that once stood on the site of Derry. The plot begins to unfold from the end, and all events are separated by the canonical 27-year gap needed for It to fall asleep and become hungry again.

Dive into the World of "Welcome to Derry": Influences Beyond the Page

Muschietti was quite nervous when pitching his idea to King, but the writer unexpectedly quickly agreed. According to the director, he did not interfere with the creative process, giving screenwriters and showrunners Jason Fuchs and Brad Kane, who worked on "It Chapter Two," free rein to develop their own ideas and adapt the original interlude plots. This task, by the way, turned out to be quite difficult, since the chapters dedicated to the history of Derry are short independent stories that had to be “unfolded” over the course of nine episodes.

As a result, the first season of the series "Welcome to Derry" differs significantly from the original work. For example, the events surrounding the fire at the Black Spot were moved from the early 1930s to 1962. Thus, Michael Hanlon's father has now become his grandfather. The plot also includes groups of children who, long before the appearance of the Losers, are trying to uncover the secrets of Pennywise, the Dancing Clown. Judging by the trailers, they await many terrifying discoveries. Nevertheless, one of the key characters remains Dick Hallorann – the same one who helps young Danny cope with the ghosts of the Overlook Hotel in the book "The Shining."

Stephen King has not yet made an official comment regarding his involvement in the creation of the series. However, the day he saw the first episode, he wrote on his social media pages: "Welcome to Derry is incredible. The first episode is terrifying." According to an article published in Deadline, its writers, who also had the opportunity to see the pilot episode, are confident that viewers will be gripped by the atmosphere of good old Derry horror even before the opening credits roll. Muschietti, the project's director, notes that it was important for him to create a strong opening in order to immediately "put the audience in a situation where nothing is taken for granted, and the environment itself seems unsafe."

We sincerely hope that he has succeeded.

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