WELCOME TO DERRY Gives IT an Powerful Origin Story and Sets Up a Pennywise Bloodbath

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Despite being only halfway through its first season (and fans are eagerly awaiting news of a renewal!), Welcome to Derry is building suspense. The story is intensifying in Derry, Maine, as Pennywise’s plans unfold, focusing on Will Hanlon and his friends. While Pennywise hasn’t fully appeared on screen yet, it’s clear that’s about to change. The fourth episode revealed a fascinating origin story for IT, drawing on Native American legends and setting the stage for a dangerous next phase of Operation Precept.

General Shaw is frustrated by the lack of progress in finding the entity he’s hunting. He’s also worried that Rose, a Native woman and former friend who’s fighting to protect her community’s land from military activity, is about to take legal action. To try and get ahead, Shaw focuses on a group of Native children who have been watching his secret Operation Precept. He specifically targets Taniel, Rose’s nephew, believing Taniel knows the location of key pillars that could lead them to the entity. Taniel refuses to cooperate, so Shaw sends Hallorann to enter Taniel’s mind and extract the information. During this mental intrusion, we see a flashback of young Taniel and Rose, where she tells him the story of the Galloo – the original name for the entity now known as IT.

This evil predates the tribe’s ancestors by millions of years. They first arrived in the area and acquired a dagger from the spirit’s home to offer protection. They honored the spirit’s woods, respecting its boundaries and avoiding hunting within them. However, when white settlers arrived, they ignored warnings to stay away and not hunt, provoking the spirit’s wrath. The entity, known as the Galloo, thrived on their misfortune, growing stronger and threatening to spread beyond the Western Woods.

Following a tribal council, the decision was made to abandon their land. However, a warrior’s daughter refused to leave and led a group into the woods to collect sacred stone. This went terribly wrong, and her mother, a warrior herself, died trying to rescue her and the others. They eventually found the cave of the Galloo and retrieved fragments of an ancient artifact. They then erected pillars around the area to contain it. As Taniel has discovered, these pillars are now located in the tunnels beneath the Well House. This means the military will likely investigate, and we fear their outcome will be similar to that of the previous settlers.

Working With the Penobscot Tribe and Wabanaki People to Craft Welcome to Derry‘s Origin Story for IT

I’m so excited about this new story exploring the origins of IT/Pennywise! It’s really important to me that these kinds of tales are told with respect and authenticity, and from what I’ve heard, the team behind Welcome to Derry really prioritized that. Kimberly Guerrero, who plays Rose, shared that Native people – including herself – were actually able to work with the creators to build this origin story, which is fantastic. It means a lot to see that collaboration happening!

Guerrero praised the show’s creators, HBO, Stephen King, and the entire production team for including them in developing a crucial part of the story: the very first encounters with ‘IT’ and how people responded. They were asked to explore the history of those who lived on the land for millennia, and to portray their deep understanding – not just of the physical world, but also of the spiritual realm beyond our everyday senses. This allowed them to depict a unique connection with the unseen world.

She shared how amazing it was to collaborate with these individuals, especially John Bear Mitchell, a highly respected Penobscot Elder. She described John Bear as a guiding force, and emphasized that throughout the project, they always prioritized honoring the Penobscot tribe and the Wabanaki people—past, present, and future.

Now that we know how IT began and the army is closing in on Pennywise, we’re sure to see the monster in its full, terrifying form. Hopefully, this story will teach us to respect places and powers that are beyond what we can easily comprehend.

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2025-11-17 06:03