Bill Skarsgård in “IT: Welcome to Derry.”
HBO/Brooke Palmer
Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise the Dancing Clown returns in the prequel series IT: Welcome To Derry on streaming this weekend. What do Rotten Tomatoes critics think of the new horror series?
The logline for the series reads, “Set in the world of Stephen King’s IT universe, IT: Welcome to Derry is based on King’s IT novel and expands the vision established by filmmaker Andy Muschietti in the feature films IT and IT Chapter Two.”
Nosferatu star Skarsgård played Pennywise in Muschietti’s IT films, which were released in 2017 and 2019, and reprises the role for It: Welcome to Derry. The cast of IT: Welcome to Derry also features Jovan Adepo, Taylour Paige, Chris Chalk, James Remar, Stephen Rider, Madeleine Stowe and Rudy Mancuso.
It: Welcome To Derry debuts on cable on HBO and will also stream on HBO Max on Sunday, Oct. 26. The series is set in 1962, 27 years before the events of 2017’s IT.
As of Wednesday, IT: Welcome to Derry has earned a 78% “fresh” rating from Rotten Tomatoes critics based on 41 reviews. The RT Critics Consensus, Popcornmeter score and audience summary are still pending.
What Are Individual Critics Saying About ‘IT: Welcome To Derry’?
Aramide Tinubu of Variety is among the top critics on RT who gives IT: Welcome to Derry a “fresh” review, calling the series “a masterfully woven and terrifying tale about the origins of the monstrous Pennywise the Clown (portrayed by Bill Skarsgård, as in the movies). The show may be set in the past, but its themes have never echoed louder today.”
Dominic Baez of the Seattle Times also gives the series a “fresh” rating on RT, writing, “You’ll get the most out of Derry if you’ve seen the movies and read the novel; it was a delight to notice the many Easter eggs that were included, even as clown-induced terror was unfolding on screen.”
Also giving IT: Welcome to Derry a “fresh” rating on RT is Kylie Northover of Australia’s The Age, who writes, “The big-budget series looks incredible, features a great cast and the creepiness level does not disappoint.”
Nicholas Quah of New York Magazine/Vulture is among RT’s top critics who give the series a “rotten” rating, writing, “The trouble with Welcome to Derry is that nothing ever quite settles into a proper story. There are too many characters sketched too thinly for you to feel deeply about any of them, and there are simply too many threads competing for emotional focus.”
Bob Strauss of The Wrap isn’t a fan of IT: Welcome to Derry, either, writing on RT, “HBO’s TV prequel to Stephen King’s epic novel and its filmed adaptations has a few virtues of its own, but mainly plays like a Stranger Things knockoff with more twisted but less resonant scare tactics and more annoying children.”
Meanwhile, Nick Schager of The Daily Beast simply calls IT: Welcome to Derry “the worst [Stephen] King adaptation in many moons.”
Rated TV-MA, IT: Welcome to Derry debuts Sunday on HBO and HBO Max.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/timlammers/2025/10/23/it-welcome-to-derry-rotten-tomatoes-reviews-does-series-clown-around/
