The following contains major spoilers for the first four episodes of Welcome to Derry, now streaming on HBO.
IT: Welcome to Derry (2025) is a prequel series to IT (2017) and IT Chapter Two (2019). The 2017 film takes place in the late 1980s, but IT only comes out once every 27 years or so. Welcome to Derry takes place in the early ’60s, with IT’s first victim disappearing in the winter of 1962. Welcome to Derry isn’t just exploring IT’s previous feeding cycles, though; it is delivering more world-building for Derry and more lore about Pennywise’s origins.
Welcome to Derry, where plans are in place to explore more of IT’s feeding cycles in later seasons. As the series progresses, fans can expect to learn more about this iconic horror monster. So far, viewers have already learned many exciting details about IT. The show has explored IT’s origins and what IT fears most, but one of the most interesting details is darker than fans realize.
Everyone Knows That Pennywise’s Favorite Meal is a Terrified Child
Warner Bros. / courtesy Everett Collection
IT, more commonly known by its most infamous persona, Pennywise the Dancing Clown, is a powerful being that feeds on fear. Once every 27 years or so, IT comes out of hibernation and feasts on the children of Derry. Fans know that Pennywise doesn’t need to eat children. There have been plenty of references, especially in Welcome to Derry, of Pennywise killing and feasting on adults, too. So, why does Pennywise prefer to prey on children?
The most obvious answer is that it’s easier. Kids are far more likely to succumb to their fears. They are also more likely to believe in the supernatural occurrences that Pennywise presents by shape-shifting into their worst fears and distorting reality around his victims. Kids have a more active imagination and are willing to believe in things that adults know don’t exist, like Santa Claus. This makes it easier for Pennywise to convince kids of his illusions and tricks than adults.
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This also gives Pennywise a great cover, too. How many times does a child claim there’s a monster under their bed or something hiding in their closet? How many kids actively have imaginary friends that they talk to and even play with? These common childhood traits often result in adults ignoring some childish claims. If they don’t believe there’s a monster in their child’s closet, why would they believe that IT is attacking them, but only they can see it?
At the end of the day, preying on children is the most efficient way to get the food IT requires before going back to sleep for 27 years. Pennywise has a brief feeding cycle, so he needs to make the most of his time awake, not just feasting, but also storing up resources for the years he isn’t actively hunting. If Pennywise feeds on fear, then the easiest way to stockpile that fear is to terrorize a bunch of kids and feed them up on fear. To do the same thing with adults would take a lot more effort and potentially result in less food.
Welcome to Derry Gives Fans a Logical Reason Pennywise Likes the Taste of Fear
Will screams in terror following an attack by Pennywise in a river in IT: Welcome to Derry Season 1 – Episode 4Image via Brooke Palmer/HBO
Season 1, Episode 4, “The Great Swirling Apparatus of Our Planet’s Function,” spends a lot of time with Will Hanlon (Blake Cameron James). Will is introduced as the son of a black couple who have recently relocated to Derry, Maine. Will’s father, Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo), is a US Air Force Major who is brought to Derry to help the military search for IT. Leroy is unaware of what the government is actually trying to get its hands on, but he believes that he is doing something important to protect the country.
Will becomes friends with Lilly Bainbridge (Clara Stack) and Ronnie Grogan (Amanda Christine), the two survivors from IT’s attack at the movie theater in Episode 1. At first, Will doesn’t believe Lilly and Ronnie’s story about the creature hunting them. He “believes that they believe it,” but Will is a smart kid who lives in a world of facts and science. It isn’t until he sees IT’s power for himself that he truly believes Lilly and Ronnie’s story.
In Episode 4, Pennywise focuses intently on Will. He terrorizes Will during a fishing trip with his father, where he takes the shape of Will’s father, who was burned in a serious plane crash. As Leroy, IT pulls Will into the river, attempting to drown him. Fortunately, Leroy intervenes and saves his son, but he sees the bruises and cuts along Will’s arm from where IT grabbed him. Together, they also see one ominous red balloon floating along the river, a clear sign that Pennywise is nearby.
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Later, Pennywise appears outside Will’s house. The clown stands behind a tree, looking at the boy’s window. When Leroy goes outside to confront the trespasser, he finds another red balloon stuck in the tree, but no sign of the clown. Will has already come around to believing in IT’s power after the graveyard scene in Episode 3, but Episode 4 proves to him that he’s a prime target.
When he meets up with his friends to tell them about what happened, he mentions that he thinks he knows why the clown is trying to scare them. According to Will, some predators purposefully scare their prey because it causes a chemical reaction in the body that makes them taste better. Will hypothesized that Pennywise is spending so much time trying to scare them to sweeten them up before eating them.
This does give the IT franchise a feeling of being more scientifically accurate and, therefore, more realistic. IT is an apex predator, so it makes sense that, on some instinctual level, it acts similarly to other, real predators. That said, this isn’t the only interesting breakthrough about IT’s hunting that Welcome to Derry makes.
The Adults In Derry Help Pennywise Hunt
General Shaw stands in the rain as a car is found at a dig site in Welcome to Derry Season 1, Ep 2Image via Brooke Palmer/HBO
One of the most interesting points that Welcome to Derry has made emphasizes that the adults are part of the problem. Most IT fans know that there is a sort of “fog” that lingers over Derry. This fog stops the adults from noticing or even reacting to the horrible things that happen in Derry, like children going missing and never coming back.
This effect causes most adults to ignore Pennywise’s presence and anything Pennywise does in Derry. If an adult had a run-in with Pennywise and lived to tell the tale, the fog makes them forget about Pennywise.
The fog explains why more adults don’t do anything to protect their kids from the strange occurrences that happen in Derry. Pennywise’s influence over the area is literally keeping them from noticing that it’s happening. As interesting as the concept of the fog is, it’s not the only important detail about Derry’s adult population.
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Many of the adults portrayed in the series are actually inadvertently helping Pennywise hunt. Think about it: kids are at the mercy of the adults in their lives. Children need to rely on their parents, teachers, and other authority figures to teach them, feed them, take care of them, and protect them. To a child, an adult’s word is absolute, but not every adult has a child’s best interest at heart.
Most of the fears Pennywise manipulates can directly correlate back to an adult in the child’s life. The kids he preys on are already living in a state of fear, making them perfect targets. For example, after Lilly’s father died a gruesome death, Lilly suffered a psychotic break. She was sent to Juniper Hill Psychiatric Hospital, a place that traumatized her further.
Several of the adults in Lilly’s life use the threat of sending her back to the asylum to keep her in line. Fans see Lilly’s mother use this tactic. At one point, her mother even takes her back to Juniper Hill and leaves her there. When Lilly tries to persuade Chief Bowers that Ronnie’s father isn’t a murderer, he also threatens to send Lilly back to the asylum on more than one occasion.
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Likewise, the way the police treat Ronnie’s father terrifies Ronnie. As a black man without an alibi, he’s an easy target to pin the crime on. Ronnie lives with the reality that her father is in prison and may be executed for a crime he didn’t commit. She is terrified that she’ll never get to see her father, an innocent man, again, and being a young woman of color, she also knows that she has no power to change the situation on her own.
The adults in Derry make IT’s job easier. Many kids already live in fear because of the actions and control of the adults in their lives, so, in a way, the adults of Derry are actually helping IT hunt. When you factor in the fog’s effect on the adults, it also makes the children feel like the adults can’t or won’t protect them from the dangers lurking in the dark, which only elevates the constant fear they experience. With so much help, it’s no wonder that most kids succumb to Pennywise after just one appearance.
Release Date
October 26, 2025
Network
HBO
Directors
Andy Muschietti
Taylour Paige
Charlotte Hanlon
