🤡😱 PENNYWISE IS BACK – And He’s HUNGRIER Than EVER in Welcome to Derry Ep4 Trailer! The Clown’s Return Will Give You NIGHTMARES for Weeks! 🛶💀
Floating down from the shadows of the sewers… that iconic orange pom-pom hair, razor teeth flashing in the Derry fog… and a whisper that chills your bones: “We all float down here.” But this time, Pennywise isn’t alone – kids’ Polaroids capturing his grin, a slingshot loaded for war, and Dick Hallorann’s psychic visions crashing into the horror like a helicopter from hell. What if the clown’s not just awake… but evolving, pulling the whole town into his circus of screams?
Don’t float away – click NOW for the full trailer and breakdown before it airs Sunday and haunts your dreams forever!
👉 Dive into the dread: Welcome to Derry Ep4 Trailer
The sewers of Derry, Maine, are about to bubble over with fresh nightmares as HBO’s It: Welcome to Derry teases the long-awaited full emergence of its most iconic monster in the Episode 4 trailer, released November 10 on the network’s YouTube channel. Titled “Shadows in the Float,” the 1:45 clip – a red-band fever dream of flickering Polaroids, blood-smeared balloons, and Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise leering from the gloom – has already amassed 5.2 million views, reigniting the Stephen King fever that propelled the 2017 and 2019 films to over $1.1 billion worldwide. Airing Sunday, November 16, at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max, Episode 4 – penned by co-showrunner Brad Caleb Kane and directed by series creator Andy Muschietti – marks the harlequin horror’s proper reintroduction in the 1962 prequel timeline, 27 years before the Losers’ Club first faced him. With the series pulling 14 million weekly viewers through its first three episodes, this trailer isn’t just hype; it’s a chilling promise that Pennywise’s return will drag Derry – and its young protagonists – into an abyss of psychological and cosmic dread, blending King’s novel lore with fresh expansions on the entity’s insatiable cycle.
Welcome to Derry, greenlit in 2022 as an HBO Max exclusive (now streaming on Max post-rebrand), serves as the origin story for Pennywise, the shape-shifting eldritch abomination from King’s 1986 tome It. Set in the fictional mill town’s underbelly during the Cuban Missile Crisis era, the eight-episode Season 1 follows a new crop of tween misfits – led by science whiz Will Hanlon (Blake Cameron James), Cuban-American newcomer Rich (Arian S. Cartaya), and resilient Ronnie Grogan (Siena Agudong) – as they unravel the vanishings plaguing their streets. Unlike the films’ dual-timeline structure, the series dives headlong into the 1960s, exploring how It – the ancient, fear-feeding entity that crash-landed in Derry eons ago – first donned its clown guise to exploit the town’s generational traumas. Executive producers Andy and Barbara Muschietti, fresh off The Flash, enlisted It Chapter Two scribe Jason Fuchs as co-showrunner alongside Kane, committing to a three-season arc that spans the full 27-year cycle, with Pennywise’s “manifestation” teased as the fulcrum for Seasons 2 and 3.
The trailer’s masterstroke lies in its measured escalation: After three episodes of atmospheric buildup – Episode 1’s grotesque “deadlight birthing” of a bat-winged infant devouring a theater troupe, Episode 2’s Black Spot-inspired racist hauntings tying into The Stand, and Episode 3’s graveyard ritual where the kids snap blurred photos of a “crypt clown” silhouette – Pennywise finally materializes in fleeting, heart-stopping glory. Skarsgård, 34, who was “hesitant” to reprise the role after a string of dark turns in John Wick: Chapter 4 and The Crow, delivers a guttural chuckle in voiceover: “Time to play, kiddies,” as his gloved hand clutches a red balloon drifting through Derry’s fog-choked alleys. The clip intercuts this with the ensemble’s mounting panic: Will piecing together a makeshift slingshot from silver slugs (a nod to the novel’s Ritual of Chüd), Ronnie confronting spectral visions of her missing brother amid sewer drips, and adult anchor Charlotte Hanlon (Taylour Paige) sensing psychic ripples from newcomer Dick Hallorann (Jovan Adepo), the Shining-linked shine with a military chopper’s-eye view of It’s lair – a cavernous trophy room of pilfered children’s trinkets. Muschietti, directing the episode, amps the production value with practical effects: Skarsgård’s makeup, a grotesque fusion of porcelain cracks and pulsating veins, was crafted over 12 hours by Oscar-winner Bill Corso, evoking the entity’s “Wechsel” transformations from King’s text.
What elevates the trailer beyond jump-scare spectacle is its layered Easter eggs, rewarding King’s die-hards while onboarding casuals. A quick flash of the Standpipe – Derry’s looming water tower where Georgie meets his fate – morphs into a balloon-festooned trap, while General Reginald Shaw (Stephen Rider), the air base commander with repressed Vietnam flashbacks, wields the slingshot in a therapy-induced trance, his “forgotten” Derry childhood resurfacing like a repressed scream. Adepo’s Hallorann, channeling Scatman Crothers’ psychic cook, boards a chopper for an aerial peek into the Barrens, spotting floating corpses and a “clown float” parade float rigged with wires – a meta jab at Pennywise’s circus origins as Bob Gray, the drifter who “liked to make jokes.” Fuchs, in a Mashable breakdown, teased how Episode 4 “weaponizes the adults’ denial,” with Pennywise exploiting Cold War paranoia: missile drills double as clown summons, and a town hall speech by Mayor Buck (James Remar) glosses over vanishings as “commie tricks.” The kids’ fake séance in the trailer – Polaroids developing into grins amid whispers of “Mrs. Kersh” – nods to fan theories of Pennywise’s “daughter,” a hag-form from the novel’s adult Beverly arc, potentially canonized here as a 1962 precursor.
Skarsgård’s return, confirmed at New York Comic-Con in October alongside a full-cast panel with Paige and Adepo, stems from Muschietti’s pitch: “This isn’t retread – it’s the why behind the what.” The Swedish star, who endured 16-hour makeup sessions for the films, told Variety the prequel lets Pennywise “play vulnerable,” glimpsing his awakening from cosmic egg to child-lure via Derry’s industrial gloom – filmed in Toronto’s disused mills standing in for the paper town’s decay. Production wrapped in August 2024 after strike delays, with a $180 million Season 1 budget (up 20% for VFX like the lair’s bioluminescent deadlights) ensuring fidelity to King’s 1,100-page epic. The child cast – James (12), Cartaya (13), and Agudong (14) – shines in raw vulnerability, their chemistry forged in “fear boot camp” improv sessions led by child psychologist consultants.
Critically, the series holds an 82% Rotten Tomatoes score, praised by Bloody Disgusting for “nailing King’s slow-burn dread without over-relying on gore,” though Polygon nitpicked Episode 3’s “pacing lulls” amid social subplots like the Black Spot’s lingering racism. Fan reactions on X (formerly Twitter) exploded post-trailer: BrainPilot’s November 10 breakdown video, “IT WELCOME TO DERRY Episode 4 Trailer Explained & Theories,” snagged 211 views and sparked threads dissecting the slingshot’s “silver bullet” ties to Salem’s Lot. Reddit’s r/stephenking hit 30k upvotes on a poll: 68% “Hyped for Pennywise’s full float,” with theories linking Shaw’s arc to the Overlook Hotel’s boiler ghosts. Merch drops – balloon-adorned slingshots and “We All Float” tees via HBO Shop – tie into King’s Rock Bottom Foundation, funding literacy amid the horror.
Accessibility remains a priority: Episodes feature descriptive audio for visually impaired viewers, syncing balloon pops with haptic cues on Max’s app, while content warnings flag child peril. As HBO eyes international rollouts – Sky Max in the UK starting November 17 – Muschietti confirmed crossovers: Hallorann’s shine bridges to Doctor Sleep, and a Season 1 stinger hints at Randall Flagg’s Derry whispers from The Stand.
With Episode 4’s ritual spiraling into Pennywise’s playground – expect a mid-episode “float parade” ambush that claims a major kid – Welcome to Derry cements King’s multiverse as TV’s new terror frontier. Skarsgård’s clown isn’t returning; he’s reclaiming Derry as his eternal circus. Tune in November 16 on HBO/Max, but fair warning: Once you hear the laughter, the shadows never quiet. In It’s world, every return is a reckoning – and the clown always collects.
