The new red band trailer for HBO’s IT: Welcome to Derry has everything fans of Stephen King‘s It could want. Children heading into sewers! Terrifying visions courtesy of Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård)! And so, so, so much blood.
Developed by Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti, the sibling team behind IT and IT: Chapter Two, the upcoming IT prequel series transports viewers to Derry, Maine in 1962. That’s 27 years before the first film takes place, meaning it’s perfectly timed to Pennywise’s last awakening before the events of IT. (King’s novel kicks off in 1957, but the films moved the time period up several decades.)
Based on IT: Welcome to Derry‘s latest trailer, Pennywise’s 1962 feeding cycle will play out similarly to his 1988 cycle. He’s going to terrorize a group of Derry children and feed on their “tasty, tasty, beautiful fear.” Of course, the Derry children are making his mission easier for him, because they keep going into the sewers where he lives! Given how many times I yelled, “Don’t go in there” at this trailer, I can only imagine how many times I’ll yell it at the TV during the actual series.
The red band trailer for IT: Welcome to Derry gives a haunting glimpse at the kind of scares that lay in store for Derry’s citizens, including a gnarly, zombified take on Uncle Sam. But it’s the image of Pennywise’s clown form that proves an eternal terror — especially when he unhinges his jaw.
In addition to Skarsgård, IT: Welcome to Derry also stars Jovan Adepo, Taylour Paige, Chris Chalk, James Remar, Stephen Rider, Madeleine Stowe, and Rudy Mancuso.
IT: Welcome to Derry premieres Oct. 26 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.