When it comes to keeping viewers hooked, Jason Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane know exactly what to do. As the writers of “IT: Welcome to Derry,” they’re exploring the dark origins of Pennywise and the cursed town of Derry, all 27 years before the first “IT” movie.
Since audiences already know Pennywise survives (played again by Bill Skarsgård), fans might be wondering how the show builds tension without focusing solely on the evil clown.
Set to premiere on October 26 on HBO Max, the series, from showrunners Andy and Barbara Muschietti, expands on Stephen King’s mythology while following Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo), a Korean War veteran, and a group of children as they navigate the town’s sinister events.
But as Fuchs and Kane explain, “Welcome to Derry” isn’t just about scares. In a previous conversation with the Muschiettis, we discussed shock value and graphic horror, and they made it clear that in this prequel, tension comes from the human cost, the characters’ choices and the terrifying idea that nobody is truly safe.
I also spoke with Fuchs and Kane about how the series raises the stakes beyond life and death, and why fear is at its most powerful when it hits close to home.
‘Your favorite characters might not be safe’
During the interview, I asked Jason Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane how they approached writing “IT: Welcome to Derry” to maintain tension and high stakes, even though audiences know Pennywise survives the 1962 events, and how they focused on the human cost for the new characters.
"Well, we tried to pull the rug out from underneath people right away and make them feel that no matter who you bond with — whatever characters you feel close to — nobody is safe, right from the beginning," Fuchs said.
"So your favorite characters might not be safe; be careful who you bond with. I think that's the idea behind these things. It’s not necessarily about whether IT will be defeated, but about establishing… that’s the great thing about long-form storytelling.
"You can really delve deeply into characters, get to know them, understand their motivations, where they're coming from and where they're going. Then you take the twin horrors of America in 1962, everything going on in the country at the time, and combine it with a supernatural horror — and really wonder what’s going to become of the characters you’ve grown to love.
"That tension, following these characters and worrying for their safety, is the real tension. It’s not necessarily about whether IT will be defeated, or who will defeat IT.”
Kane added, “I also think there’s something really exciting about going into a story like this and asking exactly the question you’re asking: ‘What could be more relevant, or more stakesy, than whether It lives or dies?’ We know he dies at the end, so what could matter more than that as it relates to this character and this story? The answer is, there is something far worse than life or death when it comes to IT. Something far scarier, with far greater stakes — not just for our characters, but for all of us.
The journey of this story is the journey of understanding that life or death are almost secondary in the context of what’s really going on. And that’s one of the central mysteries of the show. But the stakes are huge. In many ways, I think, bigger than we’ve ever seen in an IT story.”
“IT: Welcome to Derry” isn’t just about facing Pennywise but about the people we care about, the choices they make, and the real fear of losing them. Fuchs and Kane make it clear that this prequel is as much about the human cost as it is about the horror.
"IT: Welcome to Derry" premieres with one episode on Oct. 26 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and HBO Max.
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