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As a horror fan attending my very first San Diego Comic-Con, I can't tell you how excited I was for the late-night IT: Welcome to Derry panel, especially considering the fact that two of the driving minds behind the modern It franchise were going to be in attendance. That is, of course, sibling duo Andy and Barbara Muschietti, who are producing the upcoming It prequel series headed to HBO. And as someone who loved It: Chapters One and Two, I was especially relieved to hear that the amount of dedication put into the series didn't falter just because the franchise has gone from big screen to small.

In fact, according to Barbara, the series itself is basically "8 movies."

"You will realize," expounded Andy, "That each of these episodes looks like a movie," even though the episodes were written for TV. Part of that quality, according to Barabara comes from the fact that "It's HBO," but another big factor is the fact that there was so much in the universe of It that the Warner Bros. duology had to leave out. As you already know if you've been following news of the Stephen King-inspired horror show, Welcome to Derry's purpose is to explore the previous appearances of the entity that would come to be known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

"It's a lot more than the movies," guarantees Andy, who recounted that the show will work its way backwards in 27-year increments, coinciding with the feeding cycle of the monstrous child-killer in the title. Though some Pennywise flashbacks already appeared in the IT films, the Muschiettis claim they were "frustrated" to have left some of that past out, a past they now get to explore in gory detail.

And I mean gory detail. Shortly after the Muschietti's chat, the producer team showed the SDCC '25 audience the first 10 minutes of IT: Welcome to Derry's pilot episode. I won't spoil those minutes here, but let me tell you - I have seen some wild things happen in horror TV, but it was nothing like I watched at this convention.

"It's HBO," indeed.

IT: Welcome to Derry debuts on HBO and HBO Max this October.

In the immortal words of Danny Elfman, "Life's no fun without a good scare." Join Popverse's weekly explorations of the best opening moments of horror cinema in The Coldest Open, and then check out:

• The best horror movies of all time, according to horror aficionado Greg Silber
• The most underrated horror movies from the past couple years
• All the new and upcoming horror movies for 2025 and beyond

And much gore. Er, more. Much more.