HBO’s new prequel series “It: Welcome to Derry” expands a lot on Pennywise and the town’s lore, but there are still a few things you need to remember before jumping in.
The new series takes place before the Losers Club first confronts the monster haunting their Maine home, but there are plenty of connections and echoes of what’s to come in the HBO series. The new series expands on Pennywise’s origin story, but it can never hurt to refresh the baseline established in the films – and why certain characters might seem familiar.
Here’s what you need to remember about how “It: Welcome to Derry” connects to the 2017 and 2019 films.
When does “Welcome to Derry” take place during its killing cycle?
Pennywise operates on a kill period and a long hibernation period. He’s been going through this cycle for hundreds of years, and the series explores an iteration preceding the events of the film.
Every 27 years, Pennywise wakes up to wreak havoc in Derry, Maine. In “It: Chapter One”, the monster wakes up in 1989 and faces the Losers Club for the first time. “It: Welcome to Derry” follows the cycle of murders that took place before the film and is set in 1962.
One character in particular is strongly linked to the HBO series. Mike Hanlon (played in the first film by Chosen Jacobs and in the sequel by Isaiah Mustafa) has a long-standing connection to the haunted town that begins in the 1962 story. His grandfather and father both appear in season 1. Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) moves his family to town when he gets a place at the nearby military base. His only son, Will, was just a boy when he first arrived in Derry.
In the film, Mike’s father is dead and he works on a farm with an elderly version of his grandfather Leroy (played by Steven Williams). His grandfather teaches him to kill sheep with the bolt gun. Mike later uses the bolt gun in his fight against Pennywise.
The origin and arrival of Pennywise
In “It: Chapter Two”, the Losers Club returns to Derry to face Pennywise again and learn much more about his origin. The monster crash-landed on the planet millions of years ago, in the area that would become Derry, Maine. It’s about a cosmic entity from a space beyond space called The Macroverse – or Todash Space for anyone familiar with “The Dark Tower” lore – that passed through its plane of existence before entering ours and landing in North America.
It wasn’t until settlers began planning what would be Derry in the 1700s that Pennywise became active. From this point on, the monster begins its 27-year cycle which will continue until the Losers Club takes care of it.
