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Excitement is building for the Stephen King adaptation It: Welcome to Derry, that's been receiving positive feedback and drawing from themes from the broader King universe. Now, the network announced that episode two will debut sooner than expected, released fittingly for the spookiest night.

Early Release Details

Starting on the last day of October at midnight PT, the next part of Welcome to Derry will make its debut on the streaming service, prior to its traditional TV airing. Subsequent episodes of the show's first season will premiere on Sunday nights on HBO and HBO Max, culminating in the season finale on Sunday, December 14.

Show Background

Based in Stephen King’s It universe, It: Welcome to Derry draws from King’s iconic novel while enlarging the universe established by director Andy Muschietti in It and It Chapter Two. It Chapter One highlighted kids and teens battling unimaginable horrors, so it’s fitting that the prequel follows in those footsteps. Yet, the debut of the streaming show demonstrates it aimed to escalate the fear, providing even more intense scares than Muschietti’s films and establishing a brutal tone for the rest of the season.

Premise and Ideas

Located in the early '60s, the program features a fresh cast of grown-ups and kids residing in a outwardly charming locale concealing a sinister core. This place operates on a vicious, repeating pattern—one marked by hostility, discrimination, and otherworldly forces, as a terrifying being reappears every 27 years. Although Welcome to Derry might seem like it strays too near to the movies at first, what differentiates the digital program is its two-sided viewpoint—unfolding through the perspectives of kids and grown-ups at the same time. Younger characters are especially susceptible to the monster's horror, but older characters also face confronting their own nightmares stemming from the town's ingrained prejudice and covert otherworldly powers.

The series debuts on the 31st of October at 12 a.m. Pacific Time.