IT: Welcome to Derry’s Matty Twist Reveals Pennywise’s Cruelest Trick

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The new HBO Max series, Welcome to Derry, follows a fresh group of kids battling the terrifying Pennywise. However, a storyline involving the character Matty Clements is particularly heartbreaking. Set in 1962, the show takes place decades before the events of the It films – 27 years before the 2017 movie and 54 years before It: Chapter Two. The series reveals another period when the evil entity known as ‘It’ is active in Derry, tormenting a new generation of children with their deepest fears during a time of widespread anxiety in America.

The recently released prequel to It has been getting positive reviews. It’s led by Andy and Barbara Muschietti, who have a history with Stephen King adaptations, and Jason Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane are the showrunners. Bill Skarsgard is returning as Pennywise, and the cast also includes Jovan Adepo, Taylour Paige, James Remar, Chris Chalk, Kimberly Guerrero, and others. The first episode, It: Welcome to Derry, aired on October 27th.

Who Is Matty In IT: Welcome to Derry?

The beginning of It: Welcome to Derry introduces us to Matty (Miles Ekhardt), a boy trying to escape his home and the town of Derry. He’s often seen with a pacifier, which is unusual for his age, and appears to be picked on for acting younger than he is.

Matty attempts to escape town by hitchhiking with a family, but things quickly become unsettling. The pregnant mother unexpectedly goes into labor and delivers a monstrous, demonic baby that ultimately attacks and kills Matty.

The beginning of this story is similar to the start of It, where Pennywise takes Georgie Denbrough after attracting him to a sewer drain. To prevent a direct copy, the creators of the show decided not to use Pennywise’s clown appearance. Instead, they had him transform into a flying, mutated baby, as they explained to Decider.

We wanted the show to begin in a way that felt both recognizable to fans and new at the same time. Since the book and movie start with Georgie’s disappearance, it made sense to have Matty Clements be our first victim, but we aimed to present that event in a unique way.

The filmmakers deliberately chose not to use Pennywise in the new adaptation. They wanted to explore a different form of ‘It’ – one that preyed on the anxieties specific to the current era.

Is Matty Pennywise?

Matty is the first child taken by Pennywise in 1962, but even though he seems to die early on, he reappears later in It: Welcome to Derry.

Four months have passed since Matty vanished, and his friend, Lilly Bainbridge, is still struggling with his loss. She keeps hearing his voice, seemingly coming from the drain in her bathtub, and shares these unsettling experiences with her friends Phil, Teddy, and Susie. Together, they start looking into what happened to Matty, believing he might still be alive.

The episode reaches its most intense moment during a theatre scene. The group is shocked to see Matty seemingly alive on the movie screen, cradling a baby. They call out to him, hoping to pull him out of the screen, and he does respond to them. However, their hope quickly turns to disappointment when Matty angrily blames them for his situation, saying, “You’re the reason I’m in here. Because you lied. Because you weren’t there.”

Matty’s face suddenly changes, forming the sinister, triangular smile of Pennywise, revealing he wasn’t Matty at all, but the shapeshifting creature in disguise. As Pennywise, he releases the baby he was holding – a monstrous bat creature – which is unleashed upon the theatre, causing a brutal and bloody massacre of most of the group.

As a horror fan, it really got to me when it turned out Matty wasn’t alive after all. It was just another one of Pennywise’s tricks to draw the group closer, something we saw him do before with Georgie in the first movie. He used Georgie’s form to mess with Bill, making him think his brother was still there, but then twisted Georgie into this awful, nightmarish version of himself. It was all a distraction, a way for Pennywise to get to Bill when he was most vulnerable.

In It: Welcome to Derry, Pennywise exploits the children’s feelings of guilt about leaving Matty behind, prompting them to look for him. It then disguises itself as Matty to get close, feeding on their fear before ultimately killing them.

Pennywise, the terrifying clown introduced in Welcome to Derry, preys on people’s deepest fears, often appearing as distorted versions of those they love. In It: Welcome to Derry, he targets Matty, using Matty’s form to manipulate the children closest to him and lure them into becoming victims.

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2025-10-29 02:05