Is ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ based mostly on Stephen King’s ebook?

Pennywise lives, and it will not be lengthy earlier than we meet everybody’s least favourite clown beneath the sewers of Derry as soon as extra.

However given we have already had two IT films that largely lined the occasions of Stephen King’s well-known novel, what’s HBO Max’s new collection IT: Welcome to Derry going to be about?

We have seen from the trailer that Pennywise (Invoice Skarsgård) will return, and {that a} bunch of latest children can be banding collectively to face him — however how precisely does this tie in with the flicks and ebook?

We have damaged down every thing we all know up to now beneath.

Is IT: Welcome to Derry based mostly on Stephen King’s ebook?

Our largest clues as to what IT: Welcome to Derry can be based mostly on, alongside the trailer, comes courtesy of the official HBO Max logline and a few useful interview quotes from govt producer Andy Muschietti himself.

“Set on this planet of Stephen King’s IT universe, IT: WELCOME TO DERRY relies on King’s IT novel and expands the imaginative and prescient established by filmmaker Andy Muschietti within the characteristic movies IT and IT Chapter Two,” reads the logline.

So, the present is based mostly on the novel — however which bit? Nicely, for that we will flip to a Spanish interview Muschietti gave to Radio Tu earlier within the 12 months, which has been translated by Bloody Disgusting (Mashable hasn’t translated the unique interview).

“It is a story that is based mostly on the interludes of the ebook,” Muschietti mentioned. “The interludes are principally chapters that replicate Mike Hanlon’s analysis. They’re fragments of his analysis. For 27 years, it is the man attempting to determine what it’s, what did it, who did it, who noticed it, and all that stuff.”

For anybody who hasn’t learn King’s novel, Mike Hanlon is the one member of the Losers’ Membership who stays behind in Derry after the youngsters defeat the monster the primary time round. The novel has 5 interludes which are primarily diary entries written by Mike by which he compiles a historical past of Derry, chronicling the city’s darker chapters that coincide with the cycles by which Pennywise awakens to feed.

“So that they speak about catastrophic occasions from the previous, like the fireplace within the Black Spot… the bloodbath of the Bradley Gang, a gang of financial institution robbers within the ’30s… and the explosion of the Kitchener Ironworks,” Muschietti mentioned.

It seems these chapters of Derry’s historical past will kind the premise for the brand new present.

How is IT: Welcome to Derry associated to the IT films?

Though Andy Muschietti’s IT films had been based mostly on King’s novel, there was one key distinction that can have a knock-on impact for the collection: Whereas the childhood portion of the books was set within the late Fifties, the childhood part of the films takes place within the ’80s. Because of this all of the cycles in Muschietti’s IT universe are primarily pushed again by one.

We all know from the IT: Welcome to Derry trailer that the collection takes place in in 1962, which is the cycle earlier than the one proven within the first IT film. And we all know from Muschietti’s interview that he is planning three seasons of this new present, every of which can leap again in time.

Within the novels, Pennywise’s killing cycles are bookended by catastrophic occasions. The Thirties cycle begins with the bloodbath of the Bradley Gang and ends with the fireplace on the Black Spot, whereas the cycle earlier than that ends with the Ironworks exploding.

Primarily based on Muschietti’s feedback, it looks as if the present will deliver these key moments within the city’s historical past to life.

IT: Welcome to Derry debuts on Sunday, October 26 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on HBO, and can be out there to stream on HBO Max. New episodes air weekly.