IT Welcome to Derry teaser OUT: Bill Skarsgard all set to grace screens as killer clown Pennywise, once again

The teaser for IT: Welcome to Derry, the much-anticipated prequel to the hit horror films IT and IT: Chapter Two, is finally out.

Set 27 years before the events of the original movies, the HBO and Warner Bros. Television series delves into the terrifying history of Derry, Maine — and the previous reign of the murderous entity known as "It."

Pennywise returns

Bill Skarsgard reprises his chilling role as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, the central figure of fear in the story. The new series also stars Taylour Paige, Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, James Remar, Stephen Rider, Madeleine Stowe and Rudy Mancuso.

Audience reactions to the teaser

Fans immediately took to social media to express what they feel about the teaser trailer of IT: Welcome to Derry. One user wrote, “Ahhh it looks good,” while another person wrote, “we all float down here, fam.”

A third person wrote, “Looks great, not cheap at all. Promising.”

Andy Muschietti on developing a show based on IT with sister

Andy Muschietti, who directed the IT films, is back on board with his sister and producing partner Barbara Muschietti to expand the world of Stephen King’s iconic horror novel.

“This is a book we love a lot, and we felt that there was still a lot of story to be covered,” the Muschiettis told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s so rich with characters and events, we thought we would do justice to the book and the fans by going back into this world. Specifically, we are telling the stories of the interludes, writings by Mike Hanlon based on his investigation that includes interviews he conducts with the older people in the town."

They added, “In Welcome to Derry, we touch on the usual themes that were talked about in the movie — friendship, loss, the power of unified belief — but this story focuses also on the use of fear as a weapon, which is one of the things that is also relevant to our times.”

About the show

The series is created by Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs. All three serve as executive producers, alongside Brad Caleb Kane, David Coatsworth, Bill Skarsgård, Shelley Meals, Roy Lee and Dan Lin. Fuchs, who wrote the teleplay for the first episode, is also co-showrunner with Kane.

The series is scheduled to be released in 2025 on HBO with nine episodes.

IT: Welcome to Derry promises to bring fans back into the nightmare — one that started long before the Losers’ Club ever came together.

The release date of the show is yet to be announced.