This article contains spoilers for the Season 1 finale of “It: Welcome to Derry.”
The season 1 finale scene of “It: Welcome to Derry” featured “It: Chapter Two” actress Joan Gregson reprising the role of an elderly Ingrid Kersh. Gregson gave a brief but deeply disturbing performance to conclude the show’s first season in what was, sadly, his final role. The actor died in June 2025 at the age of 92.
The finale of “It: Welcome to Derry” was the series at its best and worst, presenting a thrilling conclusion to Season 1 that also seemed a little less grounded and therefore less effective than the one-two punch of an episode that was Episode 7. The whole pillar and riverside tree look seemed half-baked, and the sunny conclusion to a series that has been relentlessly gruesome and scary from the start didn’t really work. Fortunately, creators Jason Fuchs, Andy and Barbara Muschietti added a more dreary addendum to the finale that was received positively by fans.
This prologue takes the form of a flash-forward sequence set in 1988, 26 years after the events of Season 1 of “Welcome to Derry” and just one year before the 2017 film “It.” It depicts an elderly Ingrid Kersh leaving her room at Juniper Hill Asylum after hearing screams. In Room 115, Kersh discovers a distraught Beverly Marsh and her father, inconsolable after discovering Bev’s mother hanging in her room. Not only is this scene notable for the return of Sophia Lillis, who played Bev in both “It” movies, but it also represents Gregson’s final role before her passing.
The finale of It: Welcome to Derry was an unintentional homage to Joan Gregson
The strange appearance in the finale of “It: Welcome to Derry” was a much more fitting conclusion to the story than the more optimistic scenes of Jovan Adepo’s Leroy Hanlon deciding to keep his family in Derry and Chris Chalk’s Dick Hallorann embarking on a new adventure. It was also a nice way to honor Joan Gregson by bringing the actress back one last time to the world of “It” before she passed away – although no one could have known how that would turn out.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, series co-creator Barbara Muschietti revealed that Gregson died at the age of 92 in June 2025, after filming the scene two months prior, in April 2025. “She was 91 when we filmed,” Muschietti said. “She was hilarious and so talented and so ready to do it.”
According to the co-creator, it was actually a cameraman who was thinking of bringing Gregson back. Angelo Colavecchia, who worked with director Andy Muschietti on 2019’s “It” and “It: Chapter Two,” explained how he recently worked with the actor on a separate project. As Andy told EW, “I was pleasantly surprised because you assume this person is retired or something, but I was very happy to hear that they were still there and working.” After that, Gregson was brought in to reprise the role of Kersh in “Welcome to Derry”, having already played her in the last film. “She had an incredible life,” Barbara added. “She was a stage actress for most of her life. It was such an honor to be able to have her back. She was very happy to be there.”
Joan Gregson’s return made sense for the world of It
Throughout Season 1 of “Welcome to Derry,” Ingrid Kersh was played by Madeleine Stowe, who was obsessed with Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) because he stole the image of her father, Bob Gray. After the crazy clown exposed Kersh to the dead ends, she went crazy and was taken to Juniper Hill Asylum. As the series revealed, she stayed for the rest of her life. Kersh was essentially a secret character in “Welcome to Derry” who raised all kinds of questions about whether this was the same woman we saw previously in a short scene in “It: Chapter Two.” Turns out it was.
In the 2019 film, set in 2016, Beverly Marsh, Jessica Chastain’s eldest child, visits Mrs. Kersh at her home, only for the elderly woman to transform into a giant monster that chases Bev through the halls of the Neibolt Street house. In this scene, Kersh was played by Joan Gregson, and with “Welcome to Derry” providing a backstory for the character, the whole vision takes on new meaning.
We now know that old Mrs. Kersh was actually a real resident of Derry at one point. Plus, we know why he chose to use the old Mrs. Kersh to scare Bev. It was a face that Chastain’s character would have remembered from the moment she discovered her mother’s body in Juniper Hill, and he preyed on that memory to terrify her. Say what you want about “Welcome to Derry” and its flaws, but it’s pretty impressive how the show’s creators managed to weave all of this lore together into a cohesive whole. The fact that “Welcome to Derry” is Gregson’s final role makes it even more special.
