As Stephen King fans well know, Pennywise the Dancing Clown emerges every 27 years to feast on the people of Derry, especially the younger generation. That’s why It: Welcome to Derry takes place in 1962, 27 years before the 1989 events of Andy Muschietti’s 2017 It feature film, and 54 years before the 2016 setting of It Chapter Two.
The early ‘60s setting allows It: Welcome to Derry to tap into the broader cultural climate of the era, drawing on issues like the civil rights movement and Cold War dread. io9 recently participated in a press day for the new HBO show ahead of its arrival on October 26, speaking with Muschietti (a co-creator and executive producer on the series, in addition to being the director of multiple episodes) as well as writers, executive producers, and co-showrunners Brad Caleb Kane and Jason Fuchs.
“[1962] is part of the story because we are telling the story through Pennywise cycles. So it was unavoidable to go to ‘62; this is our first step into a bigger journey,” explained Muschietti. “Segregation was still around; racial problems [were] at the heart of every town in America, especially the South, but also in the North, as we see in Maine, in the story. And the Cold War [too].”
He continued. “It was actually exciting to talk about these things because it creates not only a look into history, but also dramatic opportunities [for] our characters … Also, ‘62 is very close to the original time [setting] of It, the book. When we did the movie adaptation, we transferred it to the ‘80s. And now we’re telling a prequel that happened in ‘62, but ‘62 is very close to 1958, which is [when the novel takes place]. So it’s a bit of going back to the original feeling of the book and trying to explore a little bit of that world with its own flavors and textures, and also the childhood of Stephen King.”
Kane elaborated on the setting in a separate interview with io9. “You can’t tell a story about an interdimensional being that exploits people’s fears in 1962 without addressing the great fears of the time and the great troubles of the time. We leaned into it,” he said.
“And 1962 is very much considered a time of Norman Rockwell’s America; it’s a time that’s idealized with great innocence. Obviously it wasn’t that way for everybody, but if you think of 1962 in America, before Kennedy was assassinated, as the last moment of innocence in this country, well, what happens when you scratch the surface of that innocence, that idealized time, and you find out what’s underneath? I think you’ll see something very different than the facade, and we tried to lean into that reality as well.”
While most of the show takes place in 1962, it also takes time to explore the deeper history of the Derry area. The local Native American population plays a major role in the new series, bringing in a perspective not represented in King’s original story or any of its previous adaptations.
“They’re the first people that met the monster, and they play a crucial role in the fight against it,” Muschietti teased. “There’s a part of the story that is not even in the book that is a crucial story point in this series, which tells us about the struggle of the Indigenous people against It, and that has tremendous ripple effects on generations to come.”
Kane expanded on why the Indigenous storyline was so important to include in It: Welcome to Derry. “We wanted to go back to the origins of the creature—and we wanted to talk about the stewards of the land. The Indigenous people have lived with this evil much longer than anybody else, having been here longer than anyone else, and they understand that evil is not something that you can necessarily defeat,” he said.
“It’s a constant; it’s a reality in life. It needs to be addressed; it needs to be confronted and understood, most importantly, and in lieu of destroying it, it needs to be contained properly. And that’s what the Indigenous people in Derry seek to do in the story. So we felt that was an important perspective. And obviously, if we’re thinking about Derry as a microcosm of America, you can’t tell America’s story without the Indigenous perspective. And I think that was an important reason for us to do it.”
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