HBO’s new horror series, “It: Welcome to Derry,” is not for the squeamish.
The eight-episode origin story of Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) takes place in 1962 and serves as a prequel to “It” (2018) and its sequel “It: Chapter Two” (2019).
Director Andy Muschietti, who developed the project with his sister Barbara Muschietti and writer and co-showrunner Jason Fuchs, says he didn’t hold back when it came to loading each episode with as much gore, guts and blood as possible. “I think the audience likes to be surprised, likes to be stimulated in ways that they weren’t before,” he told me at the “Welcome to Derry” premiere on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank on Monday night, adding, “We did it more intensely in every aspect.”
Barbara said she was shocked the studio never pushed back on their plans. “While we were shooting, I kept thinking, ‘I’m going to get the call,’” she recalled. “But we kept on presenting these scenes and episodes and they kept on responding and loving them. We’ve been very lucky to have the support from the studio.”
Taylour Paige, who plays a mom who has moved to Derry with her Army officer husband and their young son, said Barbara had warned her about watching the show because the actress gave birth just six months ago to her first baby. “She was like, ‘You just had a baby, honey. Maybe take some time to watch it because those first few episodes…’” Paige said. “But you know what? If you’re gonna do it, do it – go all the way. It’s a lot. It’s crazy. And I had…an unmedicated birth so I was in it. So yeah, it hit me a little more…It was good that she warned me because I felt nauseous.”
Or, as Paige mouthed with a big smile, “It’s fucked!”
Chris Chalk, who plays an Army soldier in the series, said he didn’t grasp the extent of the horror until watching the show. “There are things that you are going to see that are appropriately disgusting,” he said.
Fuchs recalled his family watching the show. “They go, ‘Is that what you had in that head of yours? That’s what was going on when you were pounding away that scene on your laptop?’” he said. “Yeah, but I think it is a show about the darkness inside all of us. Everyone’s got the dark. Everyone’s got the light. I may have more [darkness] than most, but in the case of show like this, it’s certainly very helpful. We really wanted to push the boundaries in terms of the horror, the scares, the gores. It is ruthless. It doesn’t pull any punches.”
Meanwhile, I did ask the Muschiettis for an update on their Batman movie. Variety exclusively reported in 2023 that Andy was set to direct “Batman: The Brave and the Bold” for DC. This Batman installment is separate from Matt Reeves’ Caped Crusader franchise starring Robert Pattinson.
“The intention is yes, but we can’t talk about it,” Barbara said when I asked if the film was still happening.
Andy said, “We have to wait a few, a couple of months to start talking about it.” But then he realized even that may have been too much information: “I screwed it already.”
“It: Welcome to Derry” premieres on HBO on Oct. 26.
Check out the video below to see me facing off with Pennywise at the premiere party’s scare maze.
