The Derry Prequel Series Premieres Second Early on HBO's Digital Service
Fans are eagerly awaiting for the horror series It: Welcome to Derry, already receiving positive feedback and incorporating themes from the broader King universe. Just one day after launch, the broadcaster announced that episode two will debut sooner than expected, released fittingly for the spookiest night.
Early Release Details
Starting on October 31 at midnight PT, episode two of It: Welcome to Derry will launch on HBO Max, ahead of its traditional TV airing. Subsequent episodes of the show's first season will be released on Sunday nights on both HBO and its streaming arm, leading up to the final episode on December 14th.
Show Background
Based in the Derry mythology, the new series draws from the original story while expanding on the setting established by the It movie director in It and It Chapter Two. The first It movie highlighted kids and teens facing terrifying threats, making it appropriate that this show follows in those footsteps. However, the debut of the streaming show proves it intended to increase the tension, delivering more frightening moments than Muschietti’s films and creating a brutal tone for what's to come.
Premise and Ideas
Located in the early '60s, the series features a new generation of parents and youngsters inhabiting a seemingly idyllic town hiding a dark secret. This place operates on a cruel, recurring cycle—characterized by hostility, discrimination, and otherworldly forces, as a terrifying being reappears once every three decades. While the series might seem like it skews too close to the movies initially, what differentiates the HBO Max series is its two-sided viewpoint—unfolding through the perspectives of kids and grown-ups concurrently. Younger characters stay especially susceptible to It's terror, but the adults don't escape facing their individual fears stemming from the town's ingrained prejudice and lurking supernatural forces.
Episode 2 airs on Halloween at 3 a.m. EST.
