'It: Welcome to Derry' creators feared that HBO might 'ban' first episode

Andy Muschietti admits playing with viewers' emotions in debut episode

By The News Digital
|
October 27, 2025

Andy Muschietti admits playing with viewers' emotions in debut episode

Bill Skarsgård’s It: Welcome to Derry had a brutal opening on HBO Max.

It has been labelled as a bloody premiere as the debut episode showed no mercy to the viewers.

The pilot featured Matty's friends Lilly (Clara Stack), Phil (Jack Molloy Legault), Teddy (Mikkal Karim-Fidler), Ronnie (Amanda Christine), and Susie (Matilda Legault) who team up to investigate his disappearance.

Fans are left shocked to see that out of five only two are left behind as three get killed off mercilessly in the first episode.

In the latest interview, the Muschietti siblings opened that they were concerned that their debut episode might not get permission to be aired on HBO because of too much violence.

But surprisingly, the studio was on board with the makers and did not create any hindrance.

They told Entertainment Weekly, “We went in [thinking] that will be the fight for us, we're gonna have to fight to keep on pushing the horror and push the jump scares. It was the opposite.”

While talking about the premiere episode, Andy admitted to playing with the audiences’ emotions.

“This is strategically a devastating event to set the audience into that sense of 'nothing is safe in this world.' We kind of trick the audience into thinking that these are the new Losers. Well, guess what? I guess they're all dead.”

It: Welcome to Derry second episode is set to air on Halloween.