Following the “It: Welcome to Derry” season finale, the creators behind the show reveal plans for future seasons …
SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE ‘IT: WELCOME TO DERRY’ SEASON FINALE
When we leave 1962 at the end of “It: Welcome to Derry,” Pennywise has been trapped back in its cage with Derry, Maine as its only hunting ground but the bigger revelation came during a conversation the terrifying clown had with Margie Truman.
As he stalked and scared her, Pennywise called her “Margaret Tozier” and revealed that she would eventually have a child named Richie, who along with his friends in the Loser’s Club would eventually kill It in the future. That obviously ties directly to the events in “IT: Chapter One” and “IT: Chapter Two” where Pennywise is finally defeated and destroyed in 2016.
It’s during this conversation that IT reveals that the entity doesn’t experience linear time like everybody else — instead Pennywise experiences everything — past, present and future — as one timeline, which means the creature can see everything that’s ever happened or will happen one day. So by the end of the first season, Margie theorizes that Pennywise could potentially go back in time and wipe out her relatives so she’s never born and by extension, she’d never have Richie and Pennywise wouldn’t die.
That perfectly sets the stage for future seasons of “IT: Welcome to Derry” with series creators Andy and Barbara Muschietti revealing plans for three chapters where the show would travel back to 1935 and eventually 1908, which also features some iconic events from the original Stephen King book, which the series is based upon.
“From the genesis of this project, we had the idea to make it three seasons, aligning with the three more important catastrophic events that are described in the interludes [of the book],” Andy Muschietti told TV Line. “Those are the burning of the Black Spot in ’62 — well, in the book, the dates are different, because we did a transport of the periods — but then the massacre of the Bradley Gang in ’35, and the explosion at the Easter egg hunt in 1908. It was always that blueprint for us. We wanted to make a three-season event story.”
As far as the big revelation that Pennywise sees time differently than humans also adds a particularly interesting wrinkle into the show. The creators behind the show didn’t want to give away too much about how that potentially play into the plot for the future but it’s definitely part of the planning for the next installment of “IT: Welcome to Derry.”
“I can’t talk too much about the logic, even though it’s hinted, because I don’t want to spoil it,” Andy Muschietti said. “But in that conversation, Marge is speculating, “What if he can go to the past and mess with our ancestors?” And in the book, nothing [about Pennywise] is learned. Nothing is engraved in stone. Nobody gets to learn anything about It; it’s all speculation. But in the book, you take all those speculations as truth. Everything that the Losers wonder and speculate about — it’s like, “Oh, maybe we should believe it.”
The fact that Pennywise could potentially stop one of the Loser’s Club from ever being born — in a very “Terminator” style twist that changes the future — that raises the stakes, especially for those watching the show with working knowledge about how the story all ends in “IT: Chapter Two.”
“At the end of the season, we understand we have a monster who doesn’t experience time in a linear way, so he could potentially rewrite history,” Andy Muschietti said. “In that way, we imply that the killing — his demise in 2016 — might be altered. So we’re not going to see two more seasons of thinking It dies in 2016. That’s one of the ideas that’s sort of refreshing.
“It’s like, “Oh, wait. This could end in a different way.” It’s true that Pennywise does stay in Derry, but our hope is that people are so immersed in that moment that they don’t think too much about it.”
As of now, “It: Welcome to Derry” hasn’t been officially renewed for a second season by HBO but obviously the Muschietti’s are hoping to get some good news, especially with the overwhelmingly positive reception to the first season.
