“It: Welcome to Derry” drew 5.7 million viewers in its first three days.
This total, which combines Nielsen measurements on HBO’s linear channel viewership and Warner Bros. Discovery’s own data on HBO Max streams, puts the horror series in third place when compared to all other series premieres since HBO Max’s launch. According to WBD, only House of the Dragon and The Last of Us have surpassed that. (The company did not disclose the three-day totals compared, but “House of the Dragon” had a premiere audience of just under 10 million viewers, and “The Last of Us” had a premiere audience of 4.7 million viewers, both measured in just one day.)
Set in the world established by Stephen King’s 1986 novel It, and expanding on the cinematic universe of director Andy Muschietti’s feature films It (2017) and It Chapter 2 (2019), It: Welcome to Derry tells the origin story of Pennywise, the child-hunting clown monster. As in the movie, Bill Skarsgård plays Pennywise. The cast also includes Jovan Adepo, Taylor Page, Chris Chalk, James Remar, Stephen Ryder, Blake Cameron James, Ariane S. Cartaya, Amanda Christine, Matilda Lawler, Clara Stack, Madeline Stowe, and Rudy Mancuso.
Muschietti developed “It: Welcome to Derry” for television with his sister Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs. Executive producers include the Muschiettis, Fuchs, Skarsgard, Brad Caleb Kane, David Coatsworth, Shelley Meals, Roy Lee and Dan Lin through their production company Double Dream. Fuchs wrote the script for the first episode and serves as co-showrunner with Kane, while Muschietti is directing multiple episodes.
