As the first episode of It: Welcome to Derry ends, fans are left in shock. Now the creators behind the show say that’s exactly what they wanted.
In a chat with TV guide, co-showrunner Jason Fuchs shares, “We always knew we wanted the audience to feel disoriented and thrown out of [the feeling of] “Oh god, anything can happen.”
He continues: “Characters we love may not get to…’ Forget about reaching the end of the season, but get to episode 2! There was always this general design of How do we convey to an audience to expect the unexpected from this series?”
Meanwhile, Andy Muschietti shares that they intentionally led the audience to believe otherwise from the beginning of the episode. “We kind of presented this little subversion that’s, OK, here are the losers that you’re going to love for the rest of the season.”
“And at the end of [first] episode, they all die,” he adds. “We all agreed it was a good idea. Now we have to see what people think. But I think it’s the kind of kick in the balls that, for better or for worse, is going to shock people and hopefully make them want to keep watching.”
Jason also credits his co-showrunner, Brad Caleb Kane, with the idea to end the first episode on a shocking note. “That was really Brad’s contribution, one of the first contributions [he] made when we collaborated on this.”
“I had written the pilot and there was a brutal ending, but it wasn’t the current ending. There were more survivors,” he notes.
Episode two of It: Welcome to Derry falls on Friday.
