15 TV Shows To Watch If You Like It: Welcome To Derry

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From its very first episode, the mission statement of "IT: Welcome to Derry" Season 1 is as clear as it is ruthless: One way or another, Pennywise the Clown (Bill Skarsgård) lives on to terrorize Derry. Since the horror show chronicles the titular creature's reign before the events of Andy Muschietti's "It" film duology, all bets are well and truly off, and almost no one is safe. By the time "IT: Welcome to Derry" finale wraps up with a surprising connection to the films, it's evident that the show is far more than a mere prequel spin-off; instead, it dives deep into the wealth of lore in Stephen King's 1986 novel. 

As fans are waiting for the next installment in the show's planned three-season arc to drop, it may be tempting to visit similar shows to scratch that small town horror itch. Fortunately, "Welcome to Derry" has several spiritual siblings out there. Here's a look at 15 TV shows that fans of the HBO series may enjoy. 

Stephen King's "Castle Rock" was canceled after just two seasons, but those seasons are very much worth watching if you're into "IT: Welcome to Derry." The Hulu show ran from 2018 to 2019, and its story centers on the titular Maine town – one of King's favorite settings for a "creepy small town" story. 

"Welcome to Derry" isn't afraid to explore grander King mythology with some of the more obscure aspects of the "It" novel, from Maturin the Turtle references to the presence of "The Shining" character Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) during the events that lead to The Black Spot fire. Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason's "Castle Rock" does the same, but it refuses to limit itself within the confines of a single King story. The end result is a surprisingly effective show that concerns itself with the larger King mythos instead of any single adaptation. 

Apart from many usual suspects from Castle Rock-based stories like Alan Pangborn (Scott Glenn) and Ace Merrill (Paul Sparks), the show is happy to reference and highlight numerous books and novellas to varying extent. As such, expect to see folks like "The Shining" character Jack Torrance's niece Jackie (Jane Levy), and the chilling "Misery" antagonist Annie Wilkes (Lizzy Caplan). As a fun bonus, Pennywise actor Bill Skarsgård plays the show's most explicitly mysterious character, the strange Shawshank State Penitentiary prisoner known as The Kid. 

For any viewer who's enticed by the way "IT: Welcome to Derry" brings horror and familiar characters to a period setting, John Logan's Victorian London horror fantasy "Penny Dreadful" is an easy recommendation. Though London is considerably larger than Castle Rock, the two shows share a very similar sense of investigating the unknown, which inevitably turns out to be even more complicated and terrifying than the protagonists could have imagined. 

The obligatory group of outcasts are adults on "Penny Dreadful," but the threats that stalk their city are very much on the Pennywise level and beyond. From vampires and witches to Lucifer himself, there's no telling who the mysterious medium Vanessa Ives (Eva Green) and her acquaintances encounter next. 

"Penny Dreadful" managed to attract a particularly robust group of actors, from Timothy Dalton and Josh Harnett to Helen McCrory and Patti LuPone. Just like "Welcome to Derry" is rife with references to King's mythology, "Penny Dreadful" is excellent fodder for fans who like to spot familiar themes — in this case, classic horror literature and its many monsters. Over the course of its run, the Showtime series is happy to roll out characters like Dorian Gray (Reeve Carney), Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway) and his Creature (Rory Kinnear), and Abraham Van Helsing (David Warner). 

Prime Video's "Them" should be very high on your viewing list if you enjoyed the way "IT: Welcome to Derry" unfolds the horrors of the titular town through the eyes of Leroy (Jovan Adepo) and Charlotte Hanlon's (Taylour Paige) family. 

The combination of supernatural horror and racism in 1950s Cold War America is thoroughly explored in Prime Video's "Them" Season 1, aka "Them: Covenant." The story doesn't shy away from the era's racism and in fact leans into it quite a bit, to the point that one of its major demonic villains manifests as a blackface-wearing tap dancer. As such, it's a deliberately discomforting watch that bears similarities to the Black characters' experiences on "Welcome to Derry," as well as Jordan Peele's horror work. If the 2021 first season leaves you hungry for more, a 1990s-themed sophomore season called "Them: The Scare" dropped in 2024. 

"Midnight Mass" creator Mike Flanagan says that the show couldn't be made today, thanks to the Netflix project's monologue-heavy slow burn format. However, for fans of "IT: Welcome to Derry," Flanagan's miniseries is full of familiar, atmospheric goodness. The timelessness and nigh-total isolation of the people on Crockett Island corresponds with the eeriness of Derry under It's influence, as does the constant sense of wrongness. Clearly, something is up in "Midnight Mass" — and when said something eventually reveals itself, Crockett Island is revealed to be under a monster's thrall just as much as Derry ever was. 

Hamish Linklater is the beating heart — such as it is — of "Midnight Mass" as the passionate but unconventional Father Paul Hill, while an ensemble cast led by Zach Gilford's Riley Flynn and Kate Siegel's Erin Greene provides plenty of tension (and those monologues) as the story marches toward inevitable gloom and doom. No one is safe on Crockett Island any more than they are in Derry, and even though the monsters haunting them are very different, both communities worship them in their own way. 

Just like "It," another well-known Stephen King doorstopper has received two different adaptations. The post-apocalyptic science fiction horror "The Stand" got its first live-action miniseries in 1994, but Josh Boone and Benjamin Cavell's 2020 Paramount+ version is the one to watch if you're looking for something similar to "IT: Welcome to Derry." 

Much like "Welcome to Derry," "The Stand" is a battle between good and incomprehensible evil, even though the scales of the shows are very different. Here, the scraps of humanity have to choose their side after a lab-created virus wipes off the vast majority of people. The sentiments, however, are very much the same on both shows. Existential dread, visions, and a looming sense of slow-burn terror abound, and a powerful, inhuman villain is lurking in the middle of it all. 

As a fun bonus, pairing "Welcome to Derry" with "The Stand" leaves the viewer with the impression that the Skarsgård family are the ultimate Stephen King antagonists. After all, the latter cast Bill Skarsgård's brother Alexander as the King-verse's key baddie Randall Flagg.

Frank Darabont's 2007 movie may be the definitive adaptation of Stephen King's "The Mist," but Christian Torpe's 2017 show actually bears far more resemblance to "IT: Welcome to Derry." The premise is familiar to any King aficionado. It's another Maine small town (Bridgeville, in this case), engulfed by a strange supernatural force. Instead of a creepy clown, though, it's a strange mist that hides horrendous and deadly things.

The mental and physical influence It exerts on Derry might not be as on the nose as the titular phenomenon of "The Mist," but the thematic similarities are very much there. As if to highlight the comparison, "The Mist" also repurposes the fog as a recurring terror known as the Black Spring — which isn't terribly unlike It's feeding cycles — and subjects Bridgeville's trapped residents to dangerous hallucinatory visions that are right out of Pennywise the Dancing Clown's fear-mongering playbook. 

Nick Antosca's Syfy anthology series "Channel Zero" is the perfect binge after "IT: Welcome to Derry," especially for fans who love the mystery-solving aspect of the show. Just like the characters on "Welcome to Derry" investigate a strange supernatural phenomenon that's threatening their lives, all four seasons of "Channel Zero" introduce a similar mystery of varying proportions. As luck would have it, each season's theme bears a similarity to a key concept on "Welcome to Derry."

"Channel Zero" Season 1, "Candle Cove," centers around a horror spin on children's entertainment — only, instead of a creepy clown like Pennywise, it's a whole ominous children's show that may or may not exist. Season 2, "No-End House," is about a haunted house that provides increasingly horrifying experiences and might as well be located next door to the Well House on Derry's Neibolt Street. Season 3, "Butcher's Block," is about a community plagued by eerie disappearances and a dangerous entity that feeds on children, while Season 4, "The Dream Door," features a dangerous, clown-like contortionist entity called Pretzel Jack. Put all of this together, and there's plenty of "Welcome to Derry"-themed supernatural horror fun to be had.

From Lenore Zion and "Channel Zero" creator Nick Antosca comes the 2021 Netflix miniseries "Brand New Cherry Flavor," which brings a '90s twist to supernatural horror. On the surface, the story is a revenge plot where wronged young filmmaker called Lisa Nova (Rosa Salazar) embarks on a quest to destroy the mogul (Eric Lange) who drops her from her own movie after she refuses to sleep with him. However, just like in "IT: Welcome to Derry," there's a deeper, far more supernatural undercurrent to the plot, which rapidly floats to the surface.

Apart from the fact that both shows share a very distinct haunting atmosphere, the key similarity between "Brand New Cherry Flavor" and "Welcome to Derry" is its antagonist game. Without naming any names, both shows feature supernatural antagonists who have managed to adapt to their surroundings, can control and influence other people to a concerning degree, and like to use their perceivably harmless appearance to hide their malevolent intentions. 

As poor Matty Clements (Miles Ekhardt) finds out in the opening moments of "IT: Welcome to Derry" Season 1, Episode 1 ("The Pilot"), it's incredibly hard to leave Derry when the town doesn't want you to escape. "From" takes this concept to its logical extreme by introducing a small town that literally won't allow you to leave. As a further similarity to "Welcome to Derry," the makeshift community formed by the people who have been captured by the place also has to deal with mysterious shape-shifters that stalk them — along with other things that go bump in the night.

The combination of eerie paranormal threats and an ominous town that hides countless secrets is already a pretty perfect storm. Combine this with the fact that "From" actually has even better reviews than the Stephen King show, and the John Griffin-created series is pure catnip from a "Welcome to Derry" fan's standpoint. 

If you like your scares ominous, moody, and with a side order of decades-spanning mysteries, look no further than Netflix's "Dark." The show's creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese craft a tight three-season mystery that, much like "IT: Welcome to Derry," deals with missing children, being unstuck in time, and an eerie, fictional small town where things aren't what they seem to be. "Dark" approaches the story from a sci-fi angle while "Welcome to Derry" leans toward more horror, but the two shows definitely operate in the same ballpark.  

Andy Muschietti has plans to make three seasons of "Welcome to Derry," each of which takes place in a different time period. The three-season narrative of "Dark" also spans different eras that are decades apart, piling on supplemental information and new revelations as needed. With the amount of lore "Welcome to Derry" Season 1 reveals, it's easy to imagine that its full three-season framework might end up resembling the spider's web of "Dark," and the similarities between these two ambitious shows could only increase.

Much like "Them," HBO's "Lovecraft Country" is a show that you really should pay attention to if the Hanlon family storyline on "IT: Welcome to Derry" speaks to you. The 2020 show only ran for one season, but its depiction of Lovecraftian terrors combined with Jim Crow-era oppression is both powerful and highly effective. 

"Lovecraft Country" slipped out of the zeitgeist before star Jonathan Majors was found guilty of assault and harassment in 2023, but as a critically appreciated show that's a clear conceptual cousin to "Welcome to Derry," its place on the list is more than earned.  

There are similarities galore between "Lovecraft Country" and "Welcome to Derry." Ardham, Massachusetts is rife with monsters, both the supernatural and human variety. There are characters with mysterious magical abilities, a pivotal, destructive fire, and even some multiverse antics that fans of the It creature's own multiversal nature will no doubt appreciate.   

Regardless of where you place it on a ranking of all "American Horror Story" seasons, there's no denying that "American Horror Story: Freak Show," which takes place during the early '50s, has some of the anthology show's most impressive scares and character designs. Viewers who enjoy the Pennywise aspects of "IT: Welcome to Derry" are sure to appreciate the more grounded but still extremely violent character of Twisty the Clown (John Carroll Lynch). His tragic backstory will also no doubt resonate with "Welcome to Derry" viewers who remember the dark fate of Bob Gray (Bill Skarsgård), the original Pennywise. 

Apart from similar time periods and killer clown antics, "Freak Show" introduces plenty of body horror and full-on supernatural elements, which further connect the series with "Welcome to Derry." Viewers who enjoy the harrowing dread that tends to follow Stephen King characters will likely enjoy the horror cravings offered by "American Horror Story: Freak Show."

The towns of Derry, Maine on "IT: Welcome to Derry" and Hawkins, Indiana on "Stranger Things" have many things in common, none of which make them particularly healthy environments for children. Both towns are haunted by a powerful, malevolent entity that targets young people and is fond of killing and tormenting them in imaginative ways. Both hide secretive government operations that study the circumstances surrounding the entity. And, of course, both play home to groups of plucky children who try to get to the bottom of the horrors that are snaring the area. 

Perhaps the biggest connection between the two shows comes through the shows' respective, monstrous antagonists. Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) might not be an eldritch alien monstrosity who's unstuck in time. Still, his gross appearance, vast and complex powers, and even a limited ability to shapeshift between his true appearance and his human Henry Creel form make him a truly formidable threat who bears more than a passing similarity to Pennywise at his most ominous. 

The ending of "Stranger Things" even reveals that Vecna's connection to the Upside Down and the Abyss even gives him a bit of that It-like cosmic horror flavor, thanks to the inherent risks these other planes of existence pose to the world.

Richard Price's 2020 miniseries "The Outsider" is another Stephen King adaptation, based on his 2018 novel. Much like "IT: Welcome to Derry," it combines classic King tenets of a small town — Cherokee City, Georgia in this case — and a malevolent entity wreaking bloody havoc in the region. 

The titular supernatural antagonist of the show is also known as El Cuco, and it would no doubt have plenty to talk about with Pennywise. Both creatures are shapeshifters who use fear and suffering to enhance the experience of feeding on their victims, and the main difference between the two shows is that "The Outsider" predominantly focuses on adult law enforcement officers and investigators who are trying to stop the creature's crimes. 

With these connections, great reviews, and a stellar cast featuring names like Ben Mendelsohn, Jason Bateman, and Cynthia Erivo, "The Outsider" is worth a watch if you liked "Welcome to Derry" — or simply appreciate a great horror-themed psychological thriller.

What would it be like to be a police officer in a town like Derry, provided your mind wasn't clouded by supernatural influence? Syfy's "Haven" gives us some idea of how this unfortunate job description might play out.

Jim Dunn and Sam Ernst's procedural-flavored horror-sci-fi-crime drama takes place in Haven, Maine, where virtually every resident is a Stephen King story waiting to happen — which is fitting, considering the show is loosely based on King's 2005 book "The Colorado Kid." Thanks to a mysterious affliction fittingly known as The Troubles, FBI agent Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) discovers that numerous Haven residents have strange paranormal abilities, and the town itself hides its share of shocking secrets.

"Haven" isn't quite as bloody and crushing as "IT: Welcome to Derry," but it offers an interesting angle to the same "people stuck with dealing the supernatural issues of a creepy small Maine town" premise. The afflictions the show's characters have to deal with are also very much comparable to the poor residents of Derry, from biblical plagues to conditions that bring your worst fear to life. Pennywise would feel right at home.