HBO’ s new horror series, “ It: Welcome to Derry ,” is not for the squeamish.

The eight-episode origin story of Pennywise ( Bill Skarsgård ) takes place in 1962 and serves as a prequel to “It” (2018) and its sequel “It: Chapter Two” (2019).

Director Andy Muschietti , who developed the project with his sister Barbara Muschietti and writer and co-showrunner Jason Fuchs, says he didn’t hold back when it came to loading each episode with as much gore, guts and blood as possible. “I think the audience likes to be surprised, likes to be stimulated in ways that they weren’t before,” he told me at the “Welcome to Derry” premiere on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank on Monday night, adding, “We did it more intensely in every aspect.”

Barbara said she was shocked the studio never pushed

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