It: Welcome to Derry, the terrifying eight-episode mini-series that pulls back the curtain on the town's darkest secrets. This chilling prequel takes viewers back to the seemingly innocent year of 1962, 27 years before the children of the Losers' Club first faced their nightmares. The original filmmakers, director Andy Muschietti and producer Barbara Muschietti, return to helm the descent into madness, with Bill Skarsgård once again transforming into the malevolent Pennywise the Dancing Clown, ready to manifest the deepest fears and perpetuate the cycle of evil in Derry, Maine.

The first step into Stephen King’s universe is discerning the difference between his imagined setting and the real locations that inspired it.

Derry, Maine, is a completely fictional location, a creation of the master of horror, Stephen King, that serves as the nexus of terror in many of his novels. King often uses fictional towns like Derry and Castle Rock to establish a cohesive, interconnected universe for his stories, allowing creatures and characters to pass between them. Although Derry is not real, its ambiance is heavily inspired by Bangor, Maine, where King resides, incorporating elements and landmarks from that city and other small New England communities.

Key landmarks within King's story, such as the Barrens, the Standpipe, and the Black Spot, have rough equivalents in the real world around Bangor. For example, the fictional Standpipe is often associated with Bangor's own water tower. The use of realistic inspirations grounds the horrors of Pennywise, making the town's history of violence and misfortune feel unnervingly plausible.

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Although the story is set in Maine, the search for the perfect filming location led the production crew far north of the border.

The primary filming location for the It: Welcome to Derry mini-series was the province of Ontario, Canada, where numerous towns and cities were utilized to double as Stephen King's fictional Derry, Maine. Key production areas included major urban centers and smaller communities such as Hamilton, Port Hope, Mississauga, Pickering, and Toronto. The extensive list of filming sites also featured smaller locales like Astra, Brampton, Brant, Guelph, Georgetown, and Uxbridge.

Notably, historical buildings such as Delta Secondary School in Hamilton, which dates back to 1925, were used to establish the 1960s setting. The production spanned a wide geographic area within Ontario, extending to locations like Niagara Falls, CFB Borden, North York, and Trenton, highlighting the province's versatility in portraying a classic New England town. The ability of these Canadian cities to double as an authentic, old-school American setting made them ideal choices for depicting King's sinister fictional locale.

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The entire series is an exploration of the past, deliberately placing the events long before the narrative of the main films.

The timeline for It: Welcome to Derry builds on the changes made in the recent film adaptations, shifting the starting point to the 1960s instead of the 1950s as found in Stephen King's novel. This prequel is set in 1962, a choice that allows the eight-episode series to delve into the socio-political horrors of that era, such as the Civil Rights movement, pervasive racism, including the story of The Black Spot nightclub burning, and Cold War anxieties.

Furthermore, the creators have established a potential three-season arc that would explore earlier cycles of Pennywise's terror, with a potential Season 2 set in 1935 and a Season 3 in 1908, ultimately spanning over a century of Derry's dark history when combined with the events of the IT movies.

The series directly connects to events detailed in Stephen King’s novel It that are often only alluded to in the films, specifically covering an earlier generation of terror and the town’s long history of inexplicable evil. The story will likely incorporate historical references and context from the early 1960s, a decade marked by social tension and change, to highlight the undercurrents of racial and societal fear that Pennywise is known to exploit.

The series premiered on Sunday, October 26th, and new episodes are released weekly every Sunday at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT on HBO and HBO Max, with the season finale scheduled for December 14th. With all the release details confirmed, viewers can now fully prepare to immerse themselves in the chilling backstory of Pennywise and Derry, Maine.  The series, filmed in Ontario, Canada, explores socio-political horrors like racism and the Civil Rights era, as Pennywise's evil cycle begins. It offers a terrifying, in-depth look at the foundation of the town's enduring trauma.  

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Are you ready to witness the horror in It: Welcome to Derry? Let us know in the comments below.