‘It: Welcome to Derry’ Surprise Halloween Episode Now Streaming On HBO Max

HBO Max has released a surprise episode of It: Welcome to Derry for Halloween. The 30-minute special, titled “A Story of Derry,” explores the origins of IT in Derry and is set hundreds of years before the introduction of Pennywise and the show's main events, according to Variety. Deadline reports that the streamer shared a brief clip of the never-before-seen episode on its Instagram page.

TVLine notes that this release marks the show's second annual spooky-season surprise, following a Halloween episode release last year. The series is set in the same universe as Andy Muschietti’s It movies. While Season 1 takes place 27 years before the first film, a second season was renewed in August to adapt the 1935-set Derry Interlude chapter from Stephen King’s novel. This upcoming season will center on the Bradley Gang, a group of bank robbers who encounter horror in Derry during the Great Depression.

Brief written by urgent.news from Deadline, Variety, TVLine — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.