It: Welcome to Derry aired its first episode back in October, but I was waiting for all eight episodes to air before I watched it. It was torture not to look at spoilers as I was hearing nothing but good things about the third outing as Pennywise for Bill Skarsgard. Still, I managed not to read anything about the show; all I knew was that it was a prequel to the 2017 and 2019 It and It: Chapter 2 movies, and it was set in the 1960s.
Where to Watch It – Welcome to Derry
It – Welcome to Derry was released on October 26, 2025 on HBO Max. You can stream it from this platform.
The Movie Review
Let me tell you, I loved the 1990 It mini series, I love the book, and I thought the two adaptations we got were great too. My hopes for It: Welcome to Derry were as sky high as a floating balloon and…. The show did not disappoint!. I binge-watched this over just two sittings as I was so invested in it all, and by the end of it, I actually liked this more than the two movies. My nostalgia and love for that 1990 mini series prevent me from saying I liked it better than that, but it is pretty damn close.
The 60s setting is really cool. The series takes place in 1962 and sees the Hanlon family, consisting of Air Force Major Leroy Hanlon, his civil rights activist wife, Charlotte, and their son, Will, moving to Derry. What I think that the show does very, very well is have the adults actually have a connection to the whole thing with Pennywise, as well as the kids.
Oh, before we dive further into it, this show has an absolutely shocking first episode with a crazy opening scene and a scene inside a movie theatre that is up there as one of the craziest from the entire series…. Not counting the book. Anyway, Pennywise is right at the end of his current cycle of feeding before he goes to sleep for the better part of 30 years, and he is really ramping his reign of terror up.
In addition to Will, we also have Lilly, a girl who is dealing with the trauma of her father dying in a horrible accident, as well as a stint at Juniper Hills, the local asylum. There is Margie, who is friends with Lilly, but is obsessed with being popular. There is Ronnie, a young girl whose father is being accused of the massacre at the movie theatre. Last, but by no means least, we have Rich, a young kid who just has a ton of heart and wants to be everyone’s friend. It is a great cast of young kids, and the ties to the It franchise are just awesome!
Now, when I tell you that these kids are being stalked by Pennywise and that they want to put a stop to him, you may wonder if this is just the same as the It movies and the mini series. On the surface it is, but this goes way, way deeper. We get some great scenes about the origins of Pennywise, from learning about a carnival clown called Bob Grey and his daughter. To the brave Native Americans who learned of him and managed to cage him. I loved this aspect of the show; it gave me enough to want to know more, but at the same time, I felt like it did a great job of expanding the backstory of what and who Pennywise is.
However, it was the stuff with the adults and the military that really wowed me here. Turns out that the US Air Force, thanks to a man called Francis Shaw, knows about Pennywise/It and wants to use him/it as a weapon to end the Cold War. Leroy Hanson is a “man without fear,” and Francis thinks that this could be just what they need to take control of Pennywise/it. Francis had his own run-in with this entity when he was a child, which ties in with the Native American tribe who take on the job of caging the beast, giving us even more backstory.
There is another important character here, and that is Dick Halloran. If the name Dick Halloran sounds familiar, that is because it is the same character as in The Shining! How awesome is that? He is being forced to use his “abilities” to try and track the entity, which goes about as well as you would expect.
Look, I do not want to say any more about the story of It: Welcome to Derry. If you liked the last two It movies, you simply have to watch this. While I technically watched this in early 2026, I would say that this is the best TV show that aired in 2025 and apart from some rather ropey-looking green screen when the kids were riding their bikes. I honestly do not have anything bad to say about this show. I hope that Netflix’s buying WB does not put a stop to it happening.
