The buzz around New York Comic Con turned downright electric when Andy and Barbara Muschietti stepped onto the press stage to talk about their latest nightmare, HBO’s Welcome to Derry. The sibling filmmakers who turned Stephen King’s IT into a modern horror phenomenon are returning to that cursed Maine town, this time expanding its mythology for a new generation of viewers.
“No one is safe here,” Andy warned with a grin.
It wasn’t a threat, it was a promise.
The Roots Beneath Derry
Andy and Barbara Muschietti discuss HBO’s Welcome to Derry during New York Comic Con 2025. The duo return to expand Stephen King’s chilling universe with new layers of emotion and myth.
While staying tight-lipped on plot, the Muschiettis made it clear that Welcome to Derry digs deeper into the soil of King’s universe than ever before. “The idea that this interdimensional being arrived long before any settlers, when the first inhabitants of the land were the Native people, was essential,” Barbara explained. That perspective gave the creative team a way to ground Derry’s evil in history and human consequence, not just cosmic terror.
Andy described their approach as uncovering “a hidden story,” one that explores how fear passes from one generation to the next. The result is a tapestry that weaves new cultural threads into King’s familiar dread, a universe that feels both ancient and newly alive.
Building Horror for a Bigger Canvas
Adapting IT for television offered the Muschiettis something movies couldn’t: time. “Spending more time with your characters allows you to develop a closer emotional entanglement,” Andy said. That emotional depth, he added, “magnifies the dramatic experience.”
Barbara admitted that scope comes with a price, literally. “Good things cost money,” she said, laughing. “What you see on screen takes persistence, perseverance, and studio support.” The pair approach each episode with the same cinematic ambition that defined their films, citing Game of Thrones as proof that television can deliver big-screen spectacle.
Fear, Faith, and the Slow Boil of Dread
When asked about tone, Andy leaned forward, eyes bright. “It’s that descent into dread,” he said. “You’re slowly boiled into something you can’t escape.” His version of horror isn’t just about gore, it’s about what happens to belief itself.
“He’s not an eater of flesh,” Andy said quietly. “He’s an eater of faith.”
That single line captures what makes Welcome to Derry so different. The Muschiettis aren’t chasing jump scares; they’re exploring how fear corrodes conviction, how the mind unravels long before the monster appears.
Expanding the Stephen King Universe
Without revealing specifics, Andy hinted that the series subtly ties threads from King’s wider world together. “It’s inspired by the book and by Stephen King,” he said. “We wanted to create a story that connects enigmatic moments from IT to something new.” Barbara added that they were fascinated by lineage and transformation: “Seeing how change happens over time, how optimism turns to disillusionment, that’s as terrifying as any creature.”
Their comments suggest that Welcome to Derry doesn’t just revisit familiar nightmares; it reframes them through history, family, and the unending cycle of fear that defines King’s America.
The Shape of What’s Coming
Even as they joked about the challenge of making television that looks like film, both Muschiettis radiated the same dark delight that made their IT films iconic. Andy closed our conversation with a sly smile: “At the end of season one, you’ll get a hint of where we’re going, backwards.”
And with that, he left the mystery intact, letting the imagination do the rest.
