If you thought Pennywise was scary, wait until you see how It: Welcome to Derry kicked off its HBO run. The show’s co-creators wasted zero time in setting a ruthless, anything-can-happen tone right out of the gate, leaving horror fans and Stephen King veterans gobsmacked. According to showrunner Barbara Muschietti, that electrifying premiere isn’t just a shock—it’s their answer to the infamous Game of Thrones massacre. As she put it, “We love it. It’s our Red Wedding.”
Spoiler Alert: This article features spoilers from It: Welcome to Derry
Quick read:
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Derry premiere kills off “main” characters in brutal twist
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Showrunner calls the shocking cliffhanger “our Red Wedding”
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Sets ruthless tone—nobody is safe in this prequel
Brutal Beginnings: What Really Happened in the Premiere
Forget all your theories about slow-burn horror or safe lead characters. The opening episode introduces Matty—a troubled kid desperate to escape Derry—only for him to be scooped up by a grotesque demon baby (and if you blinked, you missed the flying pacifier).
But things only get more savage. Flashing ahead four years, Matty’s childhood friends, heavily promoted as the series’ “new Losers Club,” gather at the Capitol Theater. Then, in a blood-soaked reversal, nearly every member except Lilly and Ronnie is dramatically killed by the creepy demon baby.
The showrunners have fun misleading viewers and then yanking the rug out from under us, just as Andy Muschietti explains to EW: “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.”
Fans have mixed feelings about the shocking premiere
Fans are still settling from the aftereffects of the gory premiere. While a lot of them were excited about seeing Pennywise once again, others felt the comparison wasn’t right.
This can’t be a Red Wedding episode, unless you’ve let us get emotionally invested in the characters.
But sounds cool, I’m going to watch after a few episodes are released— Donald Hensley (@The_realdonnie) October 29, 2025
Red Wedding is the strongest hook ever in a TV series 🥵
— OTT BRO (@ottbro7) October 27, 2025
That’s just nonsense, that was nothing like the red wedding lol because we were not emotionally attached to the characters in the first episode of IT, however we were heavily invested in the Starks of the red wedding.
— SimonFX (@SimonFX_) October 28, 2025
Nowhere close to the Red Wedding.
— Will (@smasher5000) October 28, 2025
All those kids except what, one?? die in the most brutal way possible in the first 60 minutes of the show lol
— The Nature Boy Dick Hammer (@EssentialBusin7) October 28, 2025
i think it’s more comparable to Bran getting pushed off the tower or Omni-Man killing the Guardians of the Globe
— Mando (@ArmandoTre7) October 27, 2025
How is it even comparable? By the time the Red Wedding hit, we’d been getting attached to those characters for like 3 or 4 seasons. Episode 1 you don’t even know who anyone is
— Paul (@urfuturestpdad) October 27, 2025
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