HBO’s new horror series “It: Welcome to Derry” is not for the faint of heart.
The eight-episode origin story of Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard) is set in 1962 and serves as a prequel to It (2018) and its sequel It: Chapter 2 (2019).
Director Andy Muschietti, who developed the project with his sister Barbara Muschietti and writer/co-showrunner Jason Fuchs, says he didn’t hold back when it came to putting as much gore, guts and blood into each episode as possible. “I think audiences like to be surprised and they like to be stimulated in ways they haven’t been before,” he told me Monday night at the premiere of “Welcome to Derry” on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, adding, “We went harder in every way.”
Barbara said she was shocked that the studio never postponed the plan. “While filming, I kept thinking, ‘I’m going to get a phone call,'” she recalls. “But we kept presenting these scenes and episodes, and they continued to respond to them and love them. We were very fortunate to have the support from the studio.”
Taylor Page, who played a mother who moved to Derry with her army officer husband and young son, said Barbara had warned her to watch the show because she had just given birth to her first child six months earlier. “She was like, ‘We just had a baby, honey. It’s the first few episodes, so you might want to take your time,'” Page said. “But you know what? If you’re going to do it, do it. Let’s make it to the end. It’s hard. It’s crazy. And I was in that state because I…had an unmedicated birth. So, yeah, it hit me a little bit more…I felt nauseous, so I’m glad she warned me.”
Or, as Paige mouthed with a big grin on her face, “Fuck it!”
Chris Chalk, who plays an Army soldier in the series, said he never understood the extent of the horror until he watched the show. “What you’re going to see is understandably unpleasant,” he said.
Fuchs recalled her family watching the show. “They say, ‘Was that what was in your head? What was going on when you kept hitting that scene on your laptop?'” he said. “Yeah, but I think this is a show about the darkness that’s inside all of us. We all have darkness. We all have light. I might have more[darkness]than others, but for a show like this, that certainly helps a lot. We wanted to push the envelope in terms of horror, scariness and gore. It’s ruthless. There are no punches.”
In the meantime, I asked the Muschiettis for an update on the Batman movie. Variety exclusively reported that Andy is set to direct DC’s Batman: The Brave and the Bold in 2023. This Batman installment is separate from Matt Reeves’ Caped Crusader series starring Robert Pattinson.
Asked if the movie was still showing, Barbara said, “That’s the intention, but I can’t speak to that.”
Andy said, “We’ll have to wait months and months before we can start talking about it.” But then he realized that even that might be too much information. “It was no good.”
“It: Welcome to Derry” premieres on HBO on October 26th.
Watch me face off against Pennywise in the horror maze at the premiere party in the video below.
