It: Welcome To Derry Is Already Fixing The Movies’ Biggest Complaint

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HBO Max’s IT: Welcome to Derry is addressing a key criticism of Andy Muschietti’s IT films. The prequel, which fans have been waiting for six years after It: Chapter Two came out, has finally been released.

As a huge fan of Stephen King’s It, I’m really excited about the new HBO series. While the movies mainly showed us the Losers Club battling Pennywise, the show seems to be digging much deeper into the history of Derry itself. From what I’ve heard, It: Welcome to Derry is planned to run for multiple seasons, and the first one will focus on everything that happened before the events we saw in the original story, leading right up to the burning of the Black Spot.

In addition to a fresh storyline, It: Welcome to Derry boasts a completely new cast, with Bill Skarsgard returning as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Despite this, the show remains connected to the established universe of the movies, and may therefore share some of their problems. Fortunately, the creators have already begun to fix one of the biggest criticisms leveled against the villain.

It & It: Chapter Two Received Complaints That Pennywise Wasn’t Violent Enough

A common criticism of both It and It: Chapter Two is that Pennywise (referred to as ‘It’ throughout this explanation) often had chances to kill the characters but chose not to. Instead of delivering fatal blows, the creature mostly just frightened the Losers Club.

In Stephen King’s story, fear is described as enhancing the taste of victims, giving the villain a reason to frighten people. But ultimately, the creature can survive on a person’s physical body or spirit alone.

Okay, so the source material – the book – was brutal, with at least 380 deaths, though some argue it’s even higher. Honestly, when I compare that to the on-screen body count in the movie adaptations, it feels surprisingly restrained. They really pulled back on the carnage!

In the 2017 film It, only three characters die on screen, and all of these deaths are directly caused by or connected to Pennywise. It: Chapter Two features seven deaths, but Pennywise is only responsible for four of them, either by controlling the victims or attacking them directly.

It: Welcome To Derry Already Fixed The Movies’ Death Complaints

The new series, It: Welcome to Derry, has quickly made a strong impression. Even after just two episodes, it’s already addressing criticisms leveled at the It films. The first episode culminates in a shockingly violent scene at a movie theater.

A creature resembling a monstrous bat-baby attacks a group of children, leaving only one survivor. The second episode establishes that this horrific event was real, not a dream. Ronnie Grogan and Lilly Bainbridge were the sole individuals to escape the attack.

The second episode of Welcome to Derry starts with intensely violent scenes: one character is eaten alive, and another is brutally thrown around and slammed into a wall. Surprisingly, this willingness to put the characters in danger worked well for the show.

The Movie Theater Massacre Hints How Welcome To Derry Will Be More Gory Than The Movies

As a huge fan of the It saga, I was absolutely floored when the movie theater massacre happened in Welcome to Derry. It happened so quickly, wiping out the new Losers Club in just one episode! Honestly, it totally shifted my expectations for the series. After It and It: Chapter Two, I was bracing for a long, drawn-out fight, but this felt… different, and much more brutal right from the start.

The promotion for the TV show highlighted its young characters, but It: Welcome to Derry wasn’t hesitant to kill them off quickly. This immediately establishes that no character is safe in the HBO Max prequel. And viewers should expect significantly more violence and bloodshed than they saw in the original movies.

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2025-11-04 04:18