'IT: Welcome to Derry' Review: A Worthy New Chapter, Expanding the Lore of Pennywise, and the Dark History of Derry
- Shauna Bushe
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
By Shauna Bushe - December 16, 2025
TV - Premium TV
Welcome to Derry arrives under the steady hand of director Andy Muschietti, someone deeply versed in Stephen Kings haunted imagination and who understands that the terror in Derry is less about jump scares, but about patience and the slow tightening effect of dread. Set in 1962, twenty-seven years before the Losers' Club first banded together, the show captures the stifling, segregated atmosphere of mid-century America as a perfect breeding ground for cosmic evil.
Plot Summary and Political Tensions
The core narrative centres on the Hanlon family, specifically Major Leroy Hanlon, a decorated Black Air Force officer, and his wife Charlotte, who relocate to the Derry military base just as the cycle of disappearances begins. While the children: Lilly, Marge, Ronnie, Rich and Will (Leroy’s son) form their own nascent "Losers' Club" to investigate the unsettling mysteries, the adult storyline takes a surprisingly political and conspiratorial turn. General Francis Shaw, Leroy's superior, reveals a covert, Cold War-era military initiative: to capture and weaponize Pennywise against the Soviet Union. The convergence of a cosmic, ancient evil with the very real contemporary horrors of racism, universal corruption (embodied by Chief Clint Bowers), and Cold War paranoia provides a chilling parallel, arguing that the worst monster in Derry is often the collective fear and hatred of its human residents.
Character Connections and Powerful Performances
The cast delivers a masterclass in period-appropriate dread, with the young actors carrying the emotional weight of their trauma-ridden counterparts. Jovan Adepo (Leroy Hanlon) and Taylour Paige (Charlotte Hanlon) are the series' anchors, imbuing their characters with dignity and strength as they navigate both supernatural terror and overt racial prejudice. Their story connects profoundly to the films, as Leroy is established as the grandfather of Mike Hanlon, the future Losers' Club historian.
Among the children, Clara Stack who plays Lilly Bainbridge is intensely compelling as the group's visionary, a girl already traumatized by her father's bizarre death. Stack delivers a fragile yet resilient performance, selling Lilly’s descent into a kind of psychic terror that leads to her commitment at Juniper Hill Asylum, a fate that haunts her future. Amanda Christine who plays Ronnie Grogan provides the necessary fire and righteous anger, fiercely defending her projectionist father against the town’s racist accusations. Her chemistry with Lilly is a study in contrasts: Lilly’s quiet desperation versus Ronnie’s loud defiance, which forms the emotional core of the young group. Meanwhile, Arian S. Cartaya who plays Rich Santos and Matilda Lawler's who plays Marge Truman share a budding, poignant first love that mirrors the thematic importance of friendship and innocence found in the films. Rich, the plucky Cuban-American new kid, sacrifices his life to save Marge during the Black Spot fire. This heroic, tragic fate sets up a major legacy connection: Pennywise later taunts Marge by revealing she will one day be the mother of Richie Tozier, effectively naming him after her lost love.
The adult storyline also delivers a shocking and effective legacy connection: Chris Chalk portrays a younger Dick Hallorann, the psychic chef from The Shining and Doctor Sleep, serving here as an Air Force airman whose "shining" ability makes him a key, if reluctant, player in the military's attempt to subdue It. Chalk's performance is a chilling highlight, showing Hallorann not as a kindly mentor, but as a man struggling to choose goodness while entangled in deep moral compromise.
Visual Style and Crafting the Horror
Director Andy Muschietti maintains the slick, cinematic look established in his IT films, yet the show successfully forges its own distinctive style rooted in the early 1960s. The cinematography leans heavily on mood, utilizing real environmental elements like practical fog, wet-down streets, and the unsettling atmosphere of a fake frozen lake to create a tangible, cold, and inescapable sense of terror. The production's commitment to practical effects is evident in the body-horror sequences, often mixing real gore rigs with high-end digital enhancements to achieve truly disgusting results, such as the infamous "Pickle Dad" monster. While certain complex visual effects, like the floating children in the cemetery, drew some criticism for appearing too digital. The overall visual language prioritizes atmosphere and tangible fear, ensuring the historical setting feels as oppressive as the monster itself.
Crucially, Bill Skarsgård returns to the role of Pennywise, delivering a performance that is both terrifyingly familiar and freshly sinister. Skarsgård is given new territory to explore here, notably a flashback to the entity inhabiting the 1908 carnival clown, Bob Gray. This allows him to shift between the innocent, Chaplin-esque mime of the historical Bob Gray and the pure, ancient malice of the cosmic creature. This dual portrayal, often showcased through Skarsgård's physical contortions and the chilling 'deadness' he brings to Pennywise's eyes, solidifies his performance as the defining take on the dancing clown for this generation, ensuring the entity remains the show's most mesmerizing and unsettling figure.
Easter Eggs and Timeline
Welcome to Derry is a treasure trove for King fans, linking not only to the IT films but to the wider King universe. Parallels abound: the opening features a young girl lured into the sewers, echoing Georgie's fate, and the kids visit a movie theatre that is later a site of tragedy in the first IT film. Hidden Easter eggs include the frequent appearance of the Paul Bunyan statue (which attacks Richie in Chapter Two), the fictional "Nozz-A-La" soda brand, and a mention of Juniper Hill Asylum, a recurring location in King's stories, Pennywise repeats his famous line ‘beep beep’ to Marge and we see ‘Mike loves Christine’ written on a chalkboard linking to King's killer car novel. The show's most compelling parallel is the explicit revelation from Pennywise that he experiences time non-linearly, implying that the Losers’ defeat of him in 1989 and 2016 is actually the entity’s own birth, effectively creating a horrifying and recursive time loop that ensures It will always exist. An additional nod is the appearance of a young Beverly Marsh in a final, chilling cameo at Juniper Hill, and much, much more.
Why Welcome to Derry Works?
The prequel succeeds where many franchise extensions fail because it understands that IT is only one part of the horror. By using the 1962 setting, the series is able to explore the mechanics of Derry's sickness: the institutional racism, the cover-ups, and the Cold War paranoia that makes the adults wilfully blind to the monster living beneath their streets. The decision to focus on the Hanlon family and a young Dick Hallorann provides necessary grounding and deepens the thematic resonance of the original material, establishing that the fight against It is generational, spanning not just the Losers' Club, but the entire history of the town. This approach allows the show to deliver high-stakes cosmic horror while simultaneously providing a devastating commentary on real-world fear and prejudice, making the series an essential, unnerving addition to the IT saga.
All episodes of 'IT: Welcome to Derry' are now streaming on Sky and HBO Max
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