Oct 29, 2025

"Welcome to Derry": "It" prequel with interesting monsters, Cold War paranoia, 1960s racism, and "bury your gays."

**Link to the n*de photos**

I've seen the 1990 miniseries and the 2017/2019 movie adaptions of Stephen King's It, with Tim Curry and Bill Skarsgard (left), respectively, playing the transdimensional "destroyer of worlds" who animates every 27 years to kill kids. The original novel has a gay character (buried right away), and the 2017/2019 adaption has a gay-subtext guy, played by Jack Dylan Grazer and James Ransone, who sort of comes out in a blink-and-you-miss-it gesture.

So I don't have high hopes for the tv series Welcome to Derry (2025). The usual Stephen King heavily closeted and buried-right-away traditions will be compounded by the setting: 1962 (every 27 years, remember?). But we'll give it a look.

Scene 1: The Music Man (1962) is playing on the big screen. Young teenager Matty (Miles Eckhardt), sucking on a pacifier, watches. Manager Cal yells at him for sneaking in without paying, and chases him into the lobby. A girl covers for him (always kind, nurturing girls and blustering, bullying boys, innit?).

Notice that it's Christmastime (actually January 4, 1962), and Matty has a black eye, signifying that he's a victim of abuse (obviously --what Stephen King kid hasn't been abused?)

Matty runs out into the snow, past a billboard reading "Welcome to Derry, Birthplace of Paul Bunyan."

Several towns claim to be the birthplace of the folk hero, including Ankely, Minnesota (where they hold Paul Bunyan days every summer), and Bangor, Maine.

Matty hitchhikes, and is picked up by a male-female couple, a Wednesday Addams-looking girl, and a young boy who spells out everythiing; "L-I-E-S," Not R-E-D-R-U-M? Asked where he's going, Matty says "Anywhere but Derry."

Weird family, bragging that the daughter is "our little harlot," and having the boy spell scary words like "necrosis," "kidnapping," "strangulation," and "cadaver." "I want out!" Matty screams, and they repeat "Out! Out! Out!"

Mom gives birth to a bloody bat-winged thing that flies around and attacks everyone before deciding to kill Matty.

A very impressive scene. But what's with introducing a major character, then killing him off?

Scene 2: Four months later, April 1962. A Femme Boy is making a list of the fighter planes that fly by.

The plane lands, and two soldiers get out: Russo and Hanlon (Jovan Adepo, seen here with his boyfriend in Watchmen). Russo complains about being stationed in small-town Derry, where nothing exciting ever happens, har har. But the Big Boss notes that as the northernmost air force base in the U.S., it's essential to monitor Soviet air space and prep for Cold War era-nuclear war. Wasn't Alaska a state in 1962?

Hanlon has rented a house in town; he and the Missus are longing for "normal."

"Well, if normal is what you're looking for, you're going to love Derry." Har-har.

Scene 3: Cut to the "idyllic" small town. A year after Bay of Pigs led the world to the brink of nuclear war, everyone is on edge. At the high school, they practice "duck and cover."

A teen girl walks through the halls, getting stared at and pranked by jars of pickles. Her friend consoles her.

Meanwhile, Femme Boy tells his boyfriend Teddy (Mikkal Karim Fidler), "We're not alone in the universe." He doesn't mean gay people, seven years before Stonewall -- he means aliens. Maybe they have one hidden in the Derry Air Base. Boyfriend thinks he's crazy.

"Teddy sucks balls" on his locker. Homophobic or all-purpose slur?

"Did you study for the test?"

"What's the point, when World War III is imminent?"

Femme Boy is played by Jack Molloy Legault, who fills his instagram with photos of his girlfriend. But I assume that Mikkel Karim Fidler is gay in real life because, when his talent agency got him tickets to the advance screening of Karate Kid: Legends, his date was a boy.

More after the break

Meanwhile, at the base, the guys are introduced to their crew, one of whom (Chad Rook) is not happy to have a black commanding officer. Hanlon chews him out, and the Big Boss gives him demerits.

Scene 4: In his room that night, Femme Boy is peering at the lady next door as she undresses. Dang, he's straight! At least Boyfriend Teddy isn't interested.

They start working on a comic book. Femme Boy suggest they create a monster that "tears guys' dicks off with his tentacles." Straight but interested in dicks. Tell me more."

Boyfriend feels guilty because Matty had no friends. His Mom paid them in candy to go to his birthday party. Maybe the pacifier was a turn-off?

Scene 5: The Bullied Girl touches her bracelet and remembers sneaking up to the viewing deck above the long-abandoned Derry Lighthouse with Matty on New Year's Eve. Heterosexual identity established at minute 26. But when he moves in for a kiss, she backs off. So, are you gay, or just not into boys who suck pacifiers?

Rejected, Matty runs out into the night. He disappears four days later.

Back in the present, Bullied Girl hears Matty singing the "You Got Trouble" song from Music Man -- from the bathtub drain! She asks him to come home, but "He won't let me."

Scene 6: The next day, Bullied Girl tells her friend what happened. Friend orders her not to talk about it, especially to the Mean Girls. She doesn't need something else for people to whisper about.

"About me or about us?" Bullied Girl asks, archly. Lesbian couple!

Cut to Femme Boy and Boyfriend Teddy riding their bikes, discussing why men have nipples. To attach rings to, obviously. They reach the Lighthouse, and are surprised to find Bullied Girl there. She thinks they were Matty's friends, so she tells them about hearing his voice from the pipes. They don't believe her, so she stomps out.

Cut to Hobson and the Big Boss discussing his injury during the Korean War and how wonderful their fathers were. I was expecting a tragic back story.

Scene 7: Shabbat. Teddy, his older brother (Finley Burke), and his parents say the prayers and discuss his upcoming Bar Mitzvah. So the kid is 12?

Finley Burke is one of the few actors in this series to have beefcake photos online. He's gay in real life, but in universe he's going to become the father of one of the 1989 kids.

Boyfriend Teddy asks Dad about his theory that Matty was kidnapped, and is alive in the sewers. Dad tells about how the skin of Holocaust victims was used to make lamp shades. This proves that we have enough real-life horrors to think about, without inventing new ones. There goes Stephen King's career. And no more comic books!

That night, Teddy is in bed, reading a comic book (in case it's relevant, Detective Comics #298, on sale October 1961, featuring "The Menace of Clay-Face"). The lights go off, and his lampshade turns into human skin, with Matty's face screaming at him. He hides under the bed, but it rolls closer and closer...

Scene 8: At the Lighthouse, Teddy tells Femme Boy and Bullied Girl about what happened. They believe him, and decide to find out what happened to Matty.

First stop: the library, along with Femme Boy's annoying little sister, who he is babysitting. Newspaper article: Matty was seen at the Capitol Theater by a theater employee's daughter on the night of January 4th.

Next stop: Theater Employee's Daughter, but she doesn't want to talk about it after the police tried to frame her Dad for killing Matty. "Wait -- you heard him singing from the sewers? I heard kids laughing, crying, calling my name. Ok. I'm in."

Scene 9: Hanlon, the one who hopes to have a "normal life" in Derry, lies in bed (no beefcake). He checks out a photo of his wife and kid, then turns out the light. Suddenly two guys wearing gas masks attack! They want the specs of the new fighter plane he's working on. Does he design them or just fly them? They punch, kick, and threaten him with a gun. Fortunately, his buddy Paul Russo from Scene 2 bursts in (wearing pajamas?) and helps subdue them.

They joke but don't hug. Darn machismo.

Scene 10: The song Matty was singing in the bathroom drain was from The Music Man, so maybe it contains a clue. The one showing January 4th has been returned, but maybe there's another print in the office. (You won't be able to rent or buy it for about 20 years). Movie Girl sneaks the kids into the theater, and they start to watch. At the song "You Got Trouble," Matty is visible on screen -- in the movie! Carrying a bundle.

After a few moments of WTF?, they apologize for treating him badly. "You're the reason I'm in here," he complains. "You lied. You weren't there." Dude, she didn't want to kiss you. It happens to everybody. He throws the bundle at them, and the bat-wing baby flies out, attacking everyone. Bullied Girl and Movie Girl manage to escape, but Femme Boy, Boyfriend Teddy, and the little sister are eviscerated. The end.

WTF? I thought they were going to be the main four, like the Loser's Club.

Looks like two new boys are coming up, Hanlon's son Will (Blake Cameron James, below), who doubtless will be dating Movie Girl, and Rich (Arian S. Catarya), who is shown gazing at girls in the trailer, his heterosexual identity established before he even appears.

Beefcake: None. I spent hours looking for beefcake photos of the adult male actors, all the way down the cast list, even those who were on screen for just a few minutes. All I found was Finley. It got very frustrating, and finally I had to give up -- I have other things to do today.

Gay Characters: Probably Boyfriend Teddy, but only in subtext, and he's killed right away.

Hanlon's buddy Russo doesn't display any heterosexual interest. He complains that there's nothing to do in Derry, but doesn't mention girls.

I'm still holding out for Bullied Girl to be a lesbian.

Coming up, Joshua Odjick, who played a gay guy in Wildhood (2021) but a straight guy in Sweet Summer Pow Wow (2025) as a Native American with a knowledge of previous incarnations of Pennywise. Maybe he'll be gay.

Heterosexism: Femme Boy is annoyingly horny.

My Grade: Interesting monster manifestations connected to the Cold War and 1960s racism. Sounds like a fun ride. If only they hadn't killed the gay kid....C+