An Early Version Of It: Welcome To Derry's Credits Included A Scene Too Gruesome To Use

This article contains spoilers for the first two episodes of "It: Welcome to Derry."

We may have seen the Losers Club defeat Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) in the finale of "It: Chapter Two," but that doesn't mean we've seen the last of the cosmic demon. Enter "It: Welcome to Derry," the HBO prequel series that's set to explore and expand upon the horrific interludes in Stephen King's horror epic. Since Andy Muschietti's "It" bumped the Losers' childhood terrors to 1988, the show's first season takes place in 1962, which is only a few years removed from when the novel begins. The show has mostly received positive critical reception, with /Film's Chris Evangelista calling "Welcome to Derry" a surprisingly scary and gruesome prequel series in his review. A nasty, yet welcome trick was played upon viewers in the pilot episode as the Muschiettis prop up a bunch of potential precursors to the Losers, only to kill most of them off in one fell swoop.

Not only are viewers confronted with an unpredictable path forward going into episode two, they're also introduced to the show's official opening title sequence. In true HBO fashion, it's one of those intros you don't want to skip. The collection of nostalgic tapestries being corrupted by Pennywise's violent acts was brought to life by the company Filmograph, which created the sequence through CG. But to make it even creepier, it was then transferred to film. Even though it features plenty of children covered in blood, the image of a girl with her eyeballs popping out, according to Filmograph executive producer Seth Kleinberg, went too far for Muschietti. "That was too much, and we dialed that back," said Kleinberg (via The Hollywood Reporter).

The gruesome image in question is in reference to the Ironworks Factory explosion of 1908 that we see young Ben Hanscom (Jeremy Ray Taylor) read about in "It: Chapter One." Removing the eyeball gag seems partially ridiculous because the series has already depicted children being violently ripped apart by a flying demon baby in the first episode. Although I do support it in the sense that the image of bloodied children running away in terror is enough to get the point across in the intro, and it also leaves room to do it in the show later on. The intro is loaded with Easter eggs of Pennywise's destruction across his 27-year cycles, like the infamous Bradley Gang massacre.

Series creators Jason Fuchs, Andy and Barbara Muschietti ambitiously pitched "Welcome to Derry" to HBO as a three-season show that would explore the 1962, 1935, and 1908 cycles of death in the cursed Maine town. If the first season is successful, and it appears that it will be, then we'll get to expand upon their horrific sneak peeks. In the meantime, however, we get to admire the eerie blending of tones within the unskippable intro. There's a real sense of dread amid all of the nostalgic imagery that's made even more chilling with its song choice. All of Derry's misfortunes are underscored by the seemingly sweet 1956 tune "A Smile and a Ribbon" by the singing sister duo Patience and Prudence.

I initially thought it was conjured for "Welcome to Derry," but it goes to show that there's plenty of innocent-sounding retro songs to retrofit among images of nuclear annihilation and evil clowns.

The first two episodes of "It: Welcome to Derry" are streaming on HBO Max.