It: Welcome to Derry Creators on How TV Show Expands Stephen King’s Franchise

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The new series, It: Welcome to Derry, delves deeper into the history of the It universe. Its creators have explained that, even though there wasn’t much existing material to work with, the show expands on the mythology of Stephen King’s original story. Andy Muschietti, who created the series with Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs, mentioned that Welcome to Derry actually adds details and refinements to King’s classic horror story, and King himself has been involved in the process.

Andy Muschietti says they’re completing the It ‘puzzle’ with Welcome to Derry series

The director of The Flash recently explained that while the events shown in the movie ‘It: Welcome to Derry’ weren’t part of the original ‘It’ novel, they help expand and enrich the world Stephen King created.

Director Andy Muschietti told Parade they’re adding scenes not found in the original novel. These new events are designed to finish a story Stephen King deliberately left open-ended, completing the narrative puzzle.

Jason Fuchs, who helped create the series, agreed with Muschietti, explaining that ‘It: Chapter Two’ closely followed Stephen King’s original story. However, with ‘Welcome to Derry,’ they had more freedom. The show starts with a basic outline, but a lot of details were still missing. Their main goal was to fill those gaps in a way that felt true to King’s writing style and the ideas in his books – essentially building on his work, not straying from it.

According to co-showrunner Brad Caleb Kane, the team approached the expansion by prioritizing the core themes of the original book: how fear is used as a weapon to control others, the loss of innocence, and the journey of facing one’s fears and past traumas. They built the story outwards from these ideas.

Even though Andy Muschietti and Jason Fuchs were exploring new ground with the ‘Welcome to Derry’ project within the ‘It’ universe, Stephen King remained closely involved, reviewing all story ideas and scripts. According to Muschietti, King’s feedback was always valuable. ‘Whenever Uncle Stevie had a suggestion, you listened,’ he said, ‘and it always improved the story.’

The first episode of ‘Welcome to Derry’ is now available. New episodes will premiere on October 31st on HBO Max and November 2nd on HBO. After that, the remaining six episodes will be released every other Sunday, with the season finale arriving on December 14th.

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2025-10-27 17:47