The series about the origins of the most terrifying monster created by Stephen King

BarcelonaWhile they were filming It: Episode 2, the second part of the diptych that adapted one of Stephen King's most important novels to the cinema, Argentine director Andy Muschietti and Swedish actor Bill Skarsgård began toying with the idea of exploring the origins of the monster played by Skarsgård in the film, the child-eating clown Pennywise. "We were especially interested in his human side," Muschietti clarified during the recent Sitges Festival. "The book talks about a guy named Bob Gray, who put on clown makeup and turned into Pennywise. At some point, It decided to take this form to do his thing, and that fascinated us."

This fascination has ended up taking the form of a series on HBO Max: It: Welcome to Derry (available with Catalan subtitles), in which he travels to the small town of Derry in the 1960s to expand the universe of the novel, but starting from "the crumbs that Stephen King leaves in the book for readers to pick up," explains Muschietti. The script is also inspired by "the interludes" written by one of the novel's protagonists, Mike Hanlon, who investigates Derry's history of violence and terror. "They are very enigmatic quests, questions that lead nowhere, but we use them to tell a new, secret story narrated backwards," says Muschietti.

The latter is true: if the first season is set in the 1960s, the following two will take place in earlier periods of Derry's history, following Pennywise's trail of crimes. "It was one of the reasons Stephen King said, 'Go for it,'" Muschietti explains. "He really liked the idea of telling the Pennywise story in reverse chronological order, with a revelation at the end that people don't expect." The first episode, released Monday, has a very familiar feel, with a group of preteens haunted by the disappearance of a friend who find themselves pursued by a supernatural creature. But the déjà vu It turns into surprise and terror when the end of the first episode shows that in this Derry the rules are crueler than in the film.

The first episode of the series introduces two narrative lines that alternate between the child protagonists and Commander Leroy Hanlon, a decorated Korean War veteran stationed at a military base near Derry where the government is conducting secret investigations. There's no shortage of supernatural monsters and brutal scenes, but while Pennywise's signature is evident, the clown hasn't yet appeared. He will. As Barbara Muschietti, the director's sister and producer of the series, recalls, one of the driving forces of the story is to explore thealter ego Pennywise's human: "Here Bill Skarsgard not only plays an interdimensional monster but also the man hiding behind the clown's mask, a very tragic character."

Some Argentinian fans of Sitges

The Muschietti brothers are Argentinian, but lived in Barcelona for many years and have a very close relationship with the Sitges Film Festival. "As a child, my contact with fantasy cinema was through television and French film magazines like Mad Movies, where there were often mentions of the Sitges Festival,” the director recalls. “Later, one of my short films from film school was selected for the Sitges competition, but I couldn't come because I spent all my money on making the 35mm print.” When they moved to Barcelona, they became a loyal festival audience, and even presented their film there. Mother, the horror short that was later turned into a feature film produced by Guillermo del Toro and starring Jessica ChastainIn the last edition they presented It: Welcome to Derry, but they assure us that they will return soon. "Hopefully, we'll present a movie," says Andy Muschietti.

The series about the origins of Pennywise was one of The three works based on Stephen King stories screened at the last Sitges FestivalThe relevance and omnipresence of King's stories in modern audiovisual media doesn't surprise the Muschiettis, who recognize themselves as children of his novels. "We are the filmmakers we are because of Stephen King, but it's a generational issue," says Andy Muschietti. "Many of our current directors grew up with his stories in the '80s. His stories blew our minds, but they also taught us how to tell a story." Bárbara Muschietti emphasizes that King's work "contains a very profound human dimension" and that "not many horror writers can say this."

Between terror and superheroes

In a moment ofIt: Welcome to Derry, one of the child protagonists reads a Flash comic –the legendary Flash of Two Worlds from 1961–, a rather explicit nod to Muschietti's previous film, The Flash, A fun and vibrant superhero film that was met with indifference by critics and flopped (relatively) at the box office. "We're very proud of the film, but it's obvious we had an image crisis with our actor, Ezra Miller, who was arrested twice," says the director. [Miller was also accused of harassment, abuse, kidnapping a minor, drowning a woman, and assaulting a partner.] "It's a delicate issue that has to do with mental health and that the public didn't digest well," he adds.

His sister laments that there are people who hate the film without even having seen it: "In the midst of the cancellation boom, Ezra was targeted by both the right and the left; it was the perfect storm." The Boy Who Reads Flash He also appears reading a Batman comic; the character that, in principle, Andy Muschietti will introduce in a couple of years in Warner's new superhero universe with the film The brave and the bold"I can't explain anything," he apologizes. "If I do, the phone will ring and I'll get a boo from James Gunn."