Andrés and Barbara Muschietti said they were taken aback when HBO approved an unflinchingly graphic and bloody opening sequence for the series It: Welcome to Derry — a scene that sets the tone for the entire project.
The series It: Welcome to Derry — a prequel to Andrés Muschietti’s film adaptations of It — opens with a sequence the creators describe as one of the darkest and most unsettling ever shown on television. At New York Comic Con 2025, Andrés and Barbara Muschietti revealed they were genuinely surprised when HBO allowed the episode to remain uncensored.
“We have a tradition of opening with a powerful blow — so the audience immediately knows what kind of world they’ve entered and that no one is safe. We wanted to establish the series’ tone within the first ten minutes.”
“While we were shooting I kept thinking, ‘They’ll never let this air — the censors will cut it to pieces.’ But HBO backed us fully when it came to the horror and the physical grotesquerie. We were very fortunate.”
The story is set in 1962 and traces early events in Derry’s history. The series follows the first generation of the Losers’ Club — ancestors of Mike Hanlon from the original films. According to Muschietti, in the opening minutes “evil is literally born”: the sequence merges stark, naturalistic birth imagery with a gruesome, blood-soaked nightmare.
Writer and showrunner Jason Fuchs, who penned this sequence early in the process, commented:
“I wanted viewers to feel real terror. It’s literally the ‘birth of a new generation’ of horror. The series is set during the Cold War — a time defined by fear of nuclear threat — and the opening uses that anxiety as a metaphor for the emergence of evil.”
Bill Skarsgård returns as Pennywise. The cast also includes Joshua Odjick, Chad Rook, Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, James Remar, Stephen Rider and others.
It: Welcome to Derry premieres October 26 on HBO Max.
Source: iXBT.games