Why It: Welcome To Derry Changed One Of Pennywise's Biggest Murder Scenes

Spoilers follow.

Episode 7 of "It: Welcome to Derry" finally adapted the scariest part of Stephen King's 1986 novel. In the book, Will Hanlon recalls the burning down of the Black Spot bar, and now the HBO series has embellished that recollection and created a major set-piece in which Pennywise is seen picking off terrified victims amid the blaze. In the novel, however, the entity takes on the form of a bird to pluck burning victims from the ground, and it seems the series almost depicted something similar — only to cut it due to production pressures.

The surprisingly scary and gruesome "Welcome to Derry" has been an all out traumatic ride for the residents of the titular town, to the extent that the poor kids at the center of this story would more believably be rocking back and forth in the corner of a mental health facility after witnessing half of the stuff in this show. Instead, like the Loser's Club of the future, they remain determined to take down Pennywise and end It's reign of terror.

Thus far, however, they haven't been all that successful in their mission. Bill Skarsgård's hellish harlequin has run rampant in 1962 Derry, taking out everyone from a theater full of kids in the shocking twist ending of the pilot episode to adults who just happen to get in his way and demonstrate the appropriate levels of fear. With episode 7, the dancing clown was simply spoiled for choice in that regard, as the Black Spot fire provided him with a veritable buffet of terrified patrons on which to feast. But the show chose to depict Pennywise's exploitation of this already horrific event in a much different way than King in his original novel.

In Stephen King's "It," the Black Spot fire is recalled during a flashback interlude wherein Mike Hanlon's father, Will Hanlon (played by Blake Cameron James in "It: Welcome to Derry"), remembers how he co-owned the speakeasy for Derry's Black military members. He recalled the bar being burned down by a white supremacist group called the Maine Legion of White Decency in a brief but disturbing moment from "It" that addressed very real fears rooted in the racial violence that characterized so much of United States history.

For "Welcome to Derry," the whole tragic, disturbing event was a pivotal moment, one which according to co-creators Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, and Jason Fuchs, formed the center of this first season. Of course, the trio elaborated on the interlude from the book, turning the Black Spot fire into a whole set-piece that becomes one of the most impressive and harrowing moments in the entire series. For one thing, we witness it in real-time rather than in flashback, making it feel more immediate and visceral right off the bat. But there's so much more that makes the sequence so chillingly effective.

Not only does Arian S. Cartaya's Rich Santos die to protect Matilda Lawler's Marge Truman, Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) arrives to feed on the petrified patrons, moving through the conflagration with a slow determination before offering his hand to a woman only to devour her face. He continues to feed on the fear, and eventually meets Ingrid Kersh (Madeleine Stowe) outside where he chops off the head of her abusive husband, Stan Kersh (Larry Day), before bathing Kersh in his infernal deadlights. In the book, however, none of this happens. But there is a big bird. 

In the "It" novel, Will Hanlon recalls how a bird appeared during the burning of the Black Spot, "Right over the last of those runnin' men." According to Will, the bird was "maybe sixty feet from wingtip to wingtip" and "the size of a Japanese Zero." The character even recalled seeing the bird's eyes before it "swooped down and grabbed that last man up," and noted how the giant creature "floated" with "big bunches of balloons tied to each wing."

The bird was, of course, It taking on a form that would allow it to pick off the stragglers from the fire. In "Welcome to Derry," however, no such giant bird appears, though it came close to being realized. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly co-showrunner Brad Caleb Kane explained how there were actually "multiple drafts" of the episode that did actually include the bird. "It just didn't make the final shoot for practical reasons," Kane explained. "That's the honest answer: for budgetary reasons. The Black Spot is a massive set piece."

He went on to explain how "normal shows" involve 10 to 13 days of production an episode. But episode 7 of "Welcome to Derry" posed a big problem in that regard. "13 days of production would take you just through the burning of the Black Spot itself," said Kane. "Maybe 10 days of production, and there's a lot more story told in 107 than just the Black Spot fire." So, it seems we missed out on the It bird simply due to production pressures, though there's absolutely no doubt the finished episode was easily the best of the season regardless (and leaves us with serious questions about Dick Hallorann).