Wonder Woman writer and It Chapter Two producer Jason Fuchs has begun work on an It prequel project for HBO Max. According to a trade report, the prequel series which is currently titled Welcome to Derry, will see Fuchs serve as the head writer and Andy Muschetti, who directed both It films, back the project as executive producer.
According to the confusingly worded trade report, the series will serve as a prequel to 2017’s It. While it’s unclear exactly what ground the series might cover, it’s possible that it could explore the origins of Pennywise. If that were to be the case, they could further develop an idea that was cut from the 2017 film which introduced Pennywise in the 1600s:
There was a scene we shot that was a flashback from the 1600s, before Pennywise [was Pennywise]. The scene turned out really, really disturbing. And I’m not the clown. I look more like myself. It’s very disturbing, and sort of a backstory for what It is, or where Pennywise came from. That might be something worth exploring in the second one. The idea is the ‘It’ entity was dormant for thousands and thousands of years. The [flashback] scene hints on that.
Bill Skarsgard
There’s no work on whether or not Bill Skarsgard, whose portrayal of Pennywise was so terrifying that the children on set were often afraid during filming, would return in the role.
