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Very soon, we'll be heading back to meet one of Derry's most famous and feared residents with the IT prequel series, IT: Welcome to Derry, and this weekend at NYCC, GamesRadar+'s Lauren Milici was fortunate enough to see some footage behind closed doors that, scientifically speaking, would scare the snot out of the rest of us.
The new show is set 27 years before IT: Chapter One, before Bill Denbrough (Jaeden Martell) and the rest of the Losers Club came face-to-face with Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård), the dancing clown who has a penchant for torturing and eventually tearing kids to pieces to feast on their fear. What will get King fans extra excited this time around, though, is that The Shining's Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk), the eventual cook of The Overlook Hotel, looks to be playing a big part in the show, long before he crosses paths with the Torrance family in The Shining.
In the first scene, we see Pennywise pay Dick Hallorann a visit. He’s sitting in the back of a military plane while Major Leroy Hanlon (grandfather to eventual Loser, Mike Hanlon, played by Jovan Adepo) and Cpt Pauly Russo (Rudy Mancuso) are flying. Dick suddenly walks into a sewer where scenes of military combat and death flash before him. He looks up and sees baby dolls and toys falling from the top of a pile the size of a skyscraper. Suddenly, we see Pennywise’s glowing yellow eyes.
In the second scene, Leroy and Pauly are in a sewer, guns drawn. Charlotte (Taylour Paige), Leroy’s wife, appears, but Pauly can’t see her…and that’s how he knows she’s not real. Leroy shoots the fake Charlotte and tells Pauly not to trust anything he sees down there and to shoot it on site. Honestly, we'd just keep an eye out for anything that floats, as well.
It's an exciting prospect that the show will see grown-ups facing off against Pennywise, rather than just another brave batch of kids trying to take on the clown. It'll also be interesting to see just how involved Dick is in this newly tweaked chapter of the IT story and how much of his shining gifts will come in handy against the town's ancient evil. You'll be able to see just what kind of chaos is heading our way when IT: Welcome to Derry premieres on HBO and HBO Max on October 26 in the US. It'll air the following day on Sky and NOW in the UK. While you wait, check out our best Stephen King adaptations here.
