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  4. It: Welcome to Derry

IT: Welcome to Derry mid-season trailer confirms we'll finally see more of Bill Skarsgård's Pennywise and IT's origins

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By George Marston published 17 November 2025

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Close up of Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise in IT: Welcome to Derry
(Image credit: HBO Max)
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It: Welcome to Derry has been digging deep into the secret history of Pennywise the Clown and the town of Derry, Maine, and with the release of a new mid-season trailer, it's looking like we'll be seeing a lot more of Bill Skarsgård's nightmarish clown and its bizarre backstory.

Check it out:

IT: Welcome to Derry | Midseason Trailer | HBO Max - YouTube IT: Welcome to Derry | Midseason Trailer | HBO Max - YouTube
Watch On

Pennywise's origins have been a key part of the story of Welcome to Derry, which has established that the creature that would become Pennywise crash-landed on Earth in a meteor before humans even existed, going on to terrorize the Indigenous people of the region as their population grew.

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In the modern day, the US government wants to capture Pennywise to use its powers as a weapon, roping in characters and concepts from across Stephen King's many novels as the people of Derry try to survive Pennywise's expanding presence.

Though we still don't know how the creature became Pennywise, it's strongly implied that we'll learn the history of that aspect of its backstory as Welcome to Derry rolls on.

The origin given in the show differs slightly from the one given in King's original novel It, which explains that the entity that becomes Pennywise has been on Earth since around 1,000,000 BCE, with no ties to the Indigenous community present in the story.

Given how much Welcome to Derry has expanded on the It mythos, bringing in other aspects of King's novels, it's not surprising that the creature's origins are being expounded upon significantly.

It: Welcome to Derry airs on HBO every Sunday at 9pm PT/ET. Stay up to date on new episodes with our Welcome to Derry release schedule.

George Marston
George Marston
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Entertainment Writer

I've been Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general comic book historian since 2011, and now I'm the Entertainment Writer at GamesRadar+. I've also been the on-site reporter at most major comic conventions such as Comic-Con International: San Diego, New York Comic Con, and C2E2. Outside of comic journalism, I am the artist of many weird pictures, and the guitarist of many heavy riffs. (They/Them)

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