Welcome to Derry takes place before the events of Stephen King’s horror classic. <\/p>
Bill Skarsg\u00e5rd looks set to return to his terrifying role as Pennywise in a new IT prequel series for Max, which he will also executive produce.<\/p>\n
According to Deadline<\/a>, the actor is reuniting with director Andy Muschietti and producers Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs for the nine-parter, which has been given the working title Welcome to Derry.<\/p>\n He previously played the role in the two-part film adaptation of Stephen King\u2019s classic horror novel<\/a> back in 2017 and 2019, both of which were huge box office successes \u2013 with the opening instalment becoming the highest-grossing horror film of all time unadjusted for inflation.<\/p>\n The new series will expand that world with an original story by Muschietti, Muschietti and Fuchs, with the latter serving as showrunner alongside Brad Caleb Kane.<\/p> Previous cast members announced for the show include Taylour Paige (Zola), Jovan Adepo (Babylon), Chris Chalk (Perry Mason) and James Remar (Oppenheimer), while there is also a recurring role for Madeleine Stowe (Revenge).<\/p>\n Although no exact plot details have been announced for the show so far, it is expected to take place in the 1960s and focus on Pennywise\u2019s backstory in the lead-up to the events of IT, incorporating several elements from the novel that didn\u2019t make it into the film.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n When the show was first announced back in 2023, King said<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019m excited that the story of Derry, Maine\u2019s most haunted city, is continuing, and I\u2019m glad Andy Muschietti is going to be overseeing the frightening festivities, along with a brain trust including his talented sister, Barbara. Red balloons all around!\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Andy Muschietti \u2013 who will direct four of the show\u2019s nine episodes \u2013 and Barbara Muschietti teased that the show would explore \u201cthe depths of Steve\u2019s novel, in all its heart, humour, humanity and horror\u201d.<\/p>\n Production on the show originally began in May last year, but was suspended due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes \u2013 which also meant that the initial 2024 release was pushed back to 2025, although no precise premiere date has been confirmed at this stage.<\/p>\n Check out more of our\u00a0Fantasy<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0to see what\u2019s on tonight.\u00a0<\/strong>For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div> <\/body><\/html>\n Welcome to Derry takes place before the events of Stephen King’s horror classic. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":52436,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/pennywise-return-for-bill-skarsgard-revealed-for-new-it-prequel-series-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/pennywise-return-for-bill-skarsgard-revealed-for-new-it-prequel-series-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/pennywise-return-for-bill-skarsgard-revealed-for-new-it-prequel-series-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/pennywise-return-for-bill-skarsgard-revealed-for-new-it-prequel-series-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/pennywise-return-for-bill-skarsgard-revealed-for-new-it-prequel-series-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/pennywise-return-for-bill-skarsgard-revealed-for-new-it-prequel-series-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/05\/pennywise-return-for-bill-skarsgard-revealed-for-new-it-prequel-series-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Welcome to Derry takes place before the events of Stephen King's horror classic.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/52435"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"