HBO Max

A mutant killer baby. Lampshades and pickle jars that come alive. Sinister sewers. A demonic clown that preys on children.

HBO Max’s “It: Welcome to Derry,” the latest adaptation of Stephen King’s epic 1986 novel about a deadly clown named Pennywise, has already scared up a lot of buzz since its Oct. 26 premiere with its mix of evil events and nightmarish images.

The first episode featuring Robert Preston warning “Ya Got Trouble” via the classic musical “The Music Man” is an ominous introduction to the subsequent terrors. Gruesome sequences revolving around birth in the first two episodes will likely make several viewers cover their eyes. (The second episode drops Friday on HBO Max in time for Halloween, and it will air in its usual 9 p.m. PT Sunday slot on HBO.)

A prequel to 2017’s “It” and 2019’s “It: Chapter Two” — both directed by Andy Muschietti — the new drama is set in 1962 in the fictional small town of Derry, Maine. Bill Skarsgård, who played Pennywise in the films, will reprise his role during the season.

The large ensemble of child actors and adults features several Black characters, including Air Force Maj. Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo); his wife Charlotte (Taylour Paige), a civil rights activist in a Jackie Kennedy pillbox hat; and son Will (Blake Cameron James). Also featured is Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider), the town’s theater projectionist, and his teen daughter Ronnie (Amanda Christine).

Developed by Muschietti, his sister Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs, the creators have prioritized increasing the intensity of the films. But the Muschietti siblings add that they are also incorporating certain messages into the mayhem. Many of the Black characters face bigotry and resistance in the predominantly white town that echo challenges that people of color currently face.

“Stephen is a master of weaving these issues into his stories, and it’s impossible to think of doing one of his stories without having that texture front and center,” Barbara Muschietti said.

The Muschiettis, in a video call, discussed diving deeper into the story of Pennywise, getting their young cast to act like kids from the 1960s, and what gives them nightmares. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Siblings Barbara Muschietti and Andy Muschietti on the set of HBO’s “It: Welcome to Derry.”

(Brooke Palmer / HBO)

How soon after the two “It” movies did the idea of a deeper dive into the world of Pennywise come about?

Andy Muschietti: The novel was the inspiration. There are all these enigmas still lingering, enigmas intentionally left unresolved in the book. Part of the greatness of the novel is that you finish 1,200 pages and at the end, you still have no idea what “It” is and what it wants. It’s all speculation. We had conversations with Bill about how great it would be to do an origin story of Bob Gray, this cryptic character, and give him the opportunity to play the human side, the man behind the clown. It’s about completing the puzzle and uniting the stories that lead one to another, creating a story with the final purpose of getting to this conclusive event, which is the creation of Pennywise, the incarnation of evil.

Barbara Muschietti: Once the idea start percolating, we got in touch with Mr. King and he loved the idea. At the beginning of the pandemic we went to (then-Warner Bros. TV chief) Peter Roth. He bought it in the room and we’ve been on it ever since. Not a day of rest.

“The Music Man” plays a prominent role in the first episode, and it gets dark pretty quickly. I’m a huge fan of that movie, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to look at that joyful musical the same way again.

Andy Muschietti: I actually wanted us to create a musical ourselves that would pretend to be a movie from 1962. But we would have spent so much money and energy. So we started a quest for the right musical. “The Music Man” was made by Warner Bros. in 1962, and it’s about someone coming to a small town not unlike Derry, talking about trouble, trouble. And it just seemed to fit.

Barbara Muschietti: We also hope a lot of younger people will be curious and go see “The Music Man.”

What is the superpower of “It” that makes it a story that keeps giving and giving?

Andy Muschietti: There are a lot of things people connect to. One of them is childhood. Most of us cherish those years as being full of magic and imagination. We’ve all been children and we’ve all been afraid of something. The novel is a testament to the virtues of childhood, and those virtues normally disappear when you become an adult. Arguably the adults are always the enemy in the world of ‘It.’”

Apart from the clown, there’s a whole mythology that has yet to be connected. My purpose in this series is to reveal the iceberg under the water.

Black characters, including Hank (Stephen Rider), Ronnie (Amanda Christine), Leroy (Jovan Adepo) and Charlotte (Taylour Paige) play central roles in HBO’s “It: Welcome to Derry.” (Brooke Palmer / HBO)

You could not have planned the timing of the show coming on, but it seems like the topical issues addressed in this show, like bigotry, have a relevance to what’s going on in the country today.

Andy Muschietti: What’s going on is not new. It’s just found a new expression. It has been going on and on in cycles. We have this illusion that things are good, but around the corner is another dictator trying to come. We came from Argentina, and we don’t have the kind of racial tension that America has had for hundreds of years. Most of Stephen’s books are a song to empathy in general, and denouncing injustice everywhere. It is important to show, especially in an era where some people in the country are trying to delete history.

Barbara Muschietti: Sadly, these horrors keep haunting us, and racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia is still sadly a human condition, needing to find someone below you that you can punch. Yes, our history makes us a little more sensitive. We live in the United States, it’s a country we love, but it is surprising …

Andy Muschietti: Alarming.

Barbara Muschietti: … that more people are not more concerned.

Andy Muschietti: It’s the fog that Stephen King was talking about. People, basically out of fear, look the other way, trying to suppress things they see, and forget. It’s all part of the same reflection.

It’s immediately obvious that some horrific things will be happening in this show, even more so than the films. The imagery is really nightmarish.

Andy Muschietti: Being a shape-shifter is the thing which keeps giving and giving, and there was a clear intention for us to raise the volume of intensity. You need to meet the expectations of the audience — they don’t want to see more of the same. And we are also dealing with a different time when the collective fears were different because of the social and political situation of that era — the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis — was just around the corner. Then there’s social unrest and segregation.

Barbara Muschietti: I’d like to say it’s all very cathartic. We’re very nice people. I swear.

A demon baby birthed in Episode 1 is among the monsters seen in “Welcome to Derry.”

(HBO)

The show also has a great feel and look to it when it comes to depicting the 1960s.

Andy Muschietti: There was a lot of instinctive respect and attention to accuracy, aesthetically and spiritually. It was the true work of a team in every department, the same folks who had worked on the movies. There was also the research from the writers.

Most of the cast members are kids who did not live in that era. How do you communicate that era and feel to a young cast?

Andy Muschietti: There is a lot of talking. Stephen King knows a lot about this because he was a kid in the 1950s. The book is so rich in detail. We have Ben Perkins, who is a child actor coach. And there is imagination. These kids like to play and at this age, they thrive when you don’t put a lot of restrictions on them. The only thing that went overboard was the cursing.

Barbara Muschietti: That’s one thing that Stephen came back to us with. “There’s too many f—.” We also send the kids with Ben who basically sets up a camp — a bicycle riding camp, a swimming camp, stuff like that which kids in 2024 did not have access to. We’ve been doing that since 2016 very successfully. Because of all of this, all these kids have an incredible bond. They’re friends for life. They get to say goodbye to adolescence on our sets in the most beautiful way.

How long will you keep expanding the ”It” universe?

Andy Muschietti: It’s Derry, Derry, Derry all day. “Welcome” is an arc that expands over three seasons. Why is “It’” Derry, and why is Derry “It”? We will eventually reveal a bigger story revolving around the existence of Pennywise.

I have to ask — what gives you two nightmares? What is scary to you?

Barbara Muschietti: Fascism. Guns.

Andy Muschietti: Violence in general. We’ve come so far as a civilization, and it seems like we haven’t learned anything. What happened to empathy, and seeing what makes us similar, instead of things that divide us?

Barbara Muschietti: And love and respect.

Fans of the creator’s hit Netflix series have their new favourite show of 2025

A new series being hailed as ‘one of the best shows of the year’ and a ‘ridiculously addictive’ thriller’ which has earned a perfect score is now streaming.

The Chair Company makes its debut via Sky Comedy as well as through the NOW platform for those with an entertainment pass.

It comes from former Saturday Night Live writers Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin, who are also the comedic minds behind Netflix cult favourite sketch show I Think You Should Leave. This time, they are bringing to the screen what is being described as a labyrinthine mystery-comedy.

According to the show’s secretive synopsis, after an embarrassing incident at work, William Ronald “Ron” Trosper (Robinson) finds himself investigating a far-reaching conspiracy. The makers have remain tight lipped around the show’s plot, wanting fans to discover all the unexpected twists and turns for themselves.

Joining Robinson in the cast, who recently starred in Paul Rudd movie Friendship are The Practice star Lake Bell, IT Part One’s Sophia Lillis, Will Price and Lou Diamond Phillips.

Ahead of it making its debut in the US and UK, it has already managed to secure a perfect 100% rating on website Rotten Tomatoes. One critic simply claimed: “One of the best shows of the year, The Chair Company will have you sinking in your recliner.”

Another added: “The Chair Company is one of the most offbeat and outlandish shows you’ll see this year.” Meanwhile a different verdict suggested: “There is nothing quite like The Chair Company: a show that is emotionally potent while still delivering the perfect marriage between sketch comedy and conspiracy theory.”

The only issue fans may find is that the series is expected to release episodes on a weekly basis with the premiere made available from October 13. Based on information found on IMDB, new instalments will be added each Sunday in the US and Monday in the UK.

This will lead to the finale airing on November 30. It means fans will need to make a decision to watch as soon as episodes drop or wait to catch up as the show is a much more compelling binge watch. That is coming from a reporter who has watched screeners for the first seven episodes and found them ridiculously addictive.

It is a perfect replacement for any viewer who enjoyed any high paced thriller or offbeat comedy released in the last year. That includes Severance, Paradise, Slow Horses, Dept. Q, The Studio and The Rehearsal. The Chair Company dials up the stakes to absolute ridiculous levels and pokes fun at how even the best in the genre make the most unexpected of connections and leaps in their stories.

In doing this it also simultaneously continues the method of Tim Robinson’s expertly crafted sketch show premise of taking simple misunderstandings or social faux pas and blows them way out of proportion.

Imagine the conspiracy thrills of Severance paired with the awkward humour of Nathan Fielder or Larry David.

Everything becomes so bizarre and compelling you can’t help but remain tight in its grip, needing to know just where the eight-part series will end up. The show proves that Robinson et al can indeed stretch a sketch idea into a lengthy series, while somehow maintaining interest and filling it with memorable character moments they are known for.

The Chair Company is streaming on Sky Comedy and NOW

A British holidaymaker has shared a look at the ‘most beautiful’ Italian town of Taormina in Sicily, which is where the second season of The White Lotus was filmed

Brits love Italy. In 2024, Finder.com reckoned that roughly 4.8 million Brits jetted off to the Mediterranean nation that year, positioning it as the third most sought-after holiday spot, only beaten by Spain and France.

But what’s there not to adore about it? It boasts sunny, warm weather, stunning coastlines, mouth-watering cuisine, and a captivating past, making it an ideal getaway for countless travellers. However, if you’ve already explored the more well-known tourist hotspots and fancy discovering somewhere fresh, one traveller is encouraging people to check out the town Taormina in Sicily, which you may recognise from the popular HBO series, The White Lotus.

“Spend the day at the beautiful Taormina with me,” Brit Isla said in her TikTok video as she shared clips of her day out in the Sicilian town.

Having been staying in a different part of the island, the video started with Isla and her partner driving an hour to get there, listening to The White Lotus soundtrack on their drive to get into the mood.

“I was so hungry by the time we arrived, so we stopped off for breakfast,” she said in the next clip as she showed off their breakfast assortment. “U had a cannoli and pistachio granito which is a traditional Sicilian breakfast.”

She went on to share their browse around the streets of Taormina and the several ceramics stores where you can by traditional Sicilian pottery.

They then continued to walk out to the town square, where they found a duo singing and playing the accordion. “I felt like I was living my Italian dream,” Isla said.

The pair then hopped on the cable car down to the stunning beach, Isola Bella, where they took a refreshing plunge in the Mediterranean waters before returning to the town for drinks, dinner, and one last cannoli before their journey home.

While Isla didn’t specify which particular spots had featured in White Lotus, the programme’s second series is set in Sicily and was partly shot in Taormina, notably at the San Domenico Palace, A Four Seasons Hotel.

The lavish hotel is a former 14th-century monastery turned luxury accommodation that visitors can book or simply explore. Although the resort depicted in the programme is fictional, the San Domenico Palace is an actual location in Taormina, Sicily, renowned for its heritage and breathtaking views, having welcomed famous guests including Audrey Hepburn and Oscar Wilde.

The series also captured some outdoor footage at Isola Bella nature reserve, which is the coastal spot that Isla featured in her clip. The town’s Ancient Greek Theatre also appeared in several episodes of the programme.

Viewers flocked to the comments section beneath Isla’s video, bombarding her with enquiries about her trip, including the weather conditions.

“Super warm in October! Needed a light jacket in the evening,” she replied in a comment.

“And Just Like That …” it’s over.

The current third season of the “Sex and the City” sequel will be its last, showrunner, writer and director Michael Patrick King said in a statement on social media Friday. And it’ll wrap in an exaggerated fashion that would suit Carrie’s style: a two-part finale on HBO Max, taking the season’s original 10 episodes to 12. Episodes 11 and 12 will air on Aug. 7 and 14, respectively, according to an HBO Max spokesperson.

“While I was writing the last episode of ‘And Just Like That …” Season 3, it became clear to me that this might be a wonderful place to stop,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “SJP [Sarah Jessica Parker] and I held off announcing the news until now because we didn’t want the word ‘final’ to overshadow the fun of watching the season. It’s with great gratitude we thank all the viewers who let these characters into their homes and their hearts over these many years.”

The original “Sex and the City” series, which followed the lives of four friends — Carrie Bradshaw (Parker), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) and Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) — premiered on HBO in 1998, ran for six seasons and was the springboard for two subsequent theatrical films. The sequel series reunited Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte and let viewers tag along on their midlife adventures in New York City.

But from its premiere in December 2021, the sequel to the popular HBO series was like a situationship viewers could never fully get a handle on. A crucial member of the friend group was absent (Samantha) and some viewers questioned the cast additions — ahem, Che Diaz — and changes to the characters’ personalities that felt inconsistent to fans who had journeyed alongside them .

Parker, who is also an executive producer of “And Just Like That …,” posted a lengthy, poem-like tribute to Carrie and the show on her Instagram account.

“Carrie Bradshaw has dominated my professional heartbeat for 27 years,” she wrote. “I think I have loved her most of all … MPK and I together recognized, as we have in the past, this chapter complete. AJLT was all joy, adventure, the greatest kind of hard work alongside the most extraordinary talent of 380 that includes all the brilliant actors who joined us. I am better for every single day I spent with you. It will be forever before I forget. The whole thing. Thank you all. I love you so. I hope you love these final two episodes as much as we all do.”

Who says you can’t go Home Box Office again?

Warner Bros. Discovery renamed its streaming service HBO Max on Wednesday, formally reversing its decision from two years ago to dump the prestigious HBO brand in a bid to make the service more appealing to a mainstream, meat-and-potatoes crowd.

The gambit to chase Netflix with a service called Max didn’t work. Warner Bros. Discovery’s leaders eventually recognized the tremendous value in the HBO name, and sheepishly brought it back for an encore.

The company announced the switch in May.

“The good news is I have a drawer full of stationary from the last time around,” HBO Chairman Casey Bloys said in May, making light of Warner Bros. Discovery’s about-face during the company’s annual programming upfront presentation to advertisers at Madison Square Garden in New York.

The move marks the fifth name for the service in 15 years.

HBO’s first digital offering, introduced in 2010, was called HBO Go. Eventually the company added an HBO Now app. Then, in 2020, when the company launched its comprehensive streaming service with Warner Bros. movies and television shows, executives decided the HBO Max name would play to the company’s strengths while beckoning customers with a souped-up product and moniker to match.

That lasted until Chief Executive David Zaslav stepped in. The company truncated the name to Max because Zaslav and other executives felt the need to create some distance from HBO’s signature shows to make room for the nonscripted fare of Discovery’s channels, including HGTV and Food Network.

Now it’s back to HBO Max.

The company has said the shift was a response to audiences’ desire for quality over quantity.

“No consumer today is saying they want more content, but most consumers are saying they want better content,” the company said in May.

The change also represents a recognition that Warner Bros. Discovery, a medium-sized media company with a huge debt burden, couldn’t compete with Netflix, which tries to offer something for everyone.

And while some of the Max-branded shows, including “The Pitt,” are critically acclaimed, it was the HBO fare, including “The White Lotus,” that has been the most consistent draw for subscribers.

HBO built its legacy as a premium cable channel that required an additional fee on the monthly cable bill. Such groundbreaking series as “The Sopranos,” “Game of Thrones” and “Sex and the City” put the channel at the vanguard of prestige programming.

Most subscribers who currently have Max won’t need to download a new app, company insiders said.

An app update will eventually change the blue Max logo to a black HBO Max one.

Staff writer Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.

Media giant Paramount Global is trying to avoid a streaming future without Cartman, Stan, Kyle and Kenny.

As Paramount struggles to complete a key merger, the company is in the midst of a protracted negotiation to extend one of its biggest and most important franchises: the long-running foulmouthed cartoon “South Park.”

Paramount’s $900-million overall deal with “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker doesn’t expire for another two years. New episodes run first on Paramount’s basic cable network Comedy Central.

But efforts to renew that venture and bring the show to the Paramount+ streaming service have hit a major snag, according to three people familiar with the discussions who were not authorized to speak publicly.

The situation highlights deep tensions and disagreements as a trio of executives try to manage Paramount until the company’s sale to David Ellison’s Skydance Media, which has the right to approve or deny large deals such as the “South Park” pact under covenants made with Paramount.

Paramount leaders are desperate to lock down “South Park’s” streaming rights in the U.S. and abroad. They’ve long been frustrated by a licensing arrangement made six years ago by the previous regime that sent “South Park” to rival HBO Max, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. That deal expires this month.

“South Park” is one of Paramount’s most important shows. Along with “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” the four boys and their celebrity-skewering ways put Comedy Central on the map for basic cable viewers, taking on hot-button issues from Scientology and the War on Terror to the royal family and the Trump administration.

During a May earnings call, Paramount co-Chief Executive Chris McCarthy — who runs Paramount’s media networks as well as Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios — told investors that “South Park” episodes would begin streaming on Paramount+ in July.

However, Paramount hasn’t nailed down the streaming rights to “South Park,” according to the three people familiar with the conversations. Since earlier this year, Paramount has made at least one offer to Parker and Stone as an early extension of their overall deal.

The company also wants to secure rights to stream the 333 episodes of “South Park” on Paramount+.

Some of the knowledgeable people expect “South Park” distribution fees to be valued at more than $200 million a year.

But Skydance hasn’t signed off, believing the deals to be too rich, according to the sources. Paramount executives believe the show is worth the big bucks, given the show’s enduring popularity and legacy.

Representatives for Paramount and Skydance declined to comment.

Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel, whose firm WME represents Parker and Stone, defended Paramount and Skydance’s handling of the situation on Friday by phone.

“Nobody has rejected anything. They are just doing their analysis,” Emanuel told The Times in a brief interview. “We’ve got offers from other distributors. Everybody wants this show.”

Skydance’s $8-billion takeover of Paramount has been in a holding pattern for months as the two companies wait for federal regulators’ approval. Skydance, backed by tech mogul Larry Ellison and RedBird Capital Partners, is eager to take over the storied media company.

They intend to bring increased financial rigor to Paramount’s operations, other sources have said. Paramount and Skydance have told Wall Street the deal will bring $2 billion in cost savings, with half of that coming in the first year.

Deadlines are looming. The new season, the program’s 27th, is scheduled to debut July 9 on Comedy Central.

Unless Paramount strikes a deal with the creators by June 23, the company risks losing the franchise’s streaming rights because Parker and Stone could shop the show to other interested streamers, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Hulu. However, sources cautioned that negotiations could go past the June deadline and that the parties expect a deal to get done.

Represented by their longtime attorney Kevin Morris, who is leading the current negotiations, the duo carved out the internet rights nearly two decades ago. They formed a joint venture with Paramount (then known as Viacom) called South Park Digital Studios. That decision proved highly lucrative for Parker and Stone, also known for the hit Broadway musical “The Book of Mormon.”

Paramount runs the joint venture with Stone and Parker, sharing control of the streaming rights to the show that launched in 1997 on Comedy Central, although the duo can veto streaming deals they find unfavorable.

Companies are typically not supposed to wade too deeply into another firm’s affairs. Federal antitrust laws prohibit so-called gun-jumping, when an acquiring company begins calling the shots before a deal’s official closure. But Paramount agreed to accept Skydance’s input on big-ticket expenditures while the two sides wait for the deal to close.

The “South Park” streaming rights negotiations also have been complicated by a lawsuit brought two years ago by Warner Bros. Discovery. That company accused Paramount of violating terms of its 2019 licensing pact for “South Park,” after Warner paid about $540 million for the show’s streaming rights.

Paramount and the “South Park” creators developed specials featuring the four animated boys in a fictional Colorado mountain town to stream exclusively on Paramount+. Warner argued the move violated its licensing deal. HBO Max declined to comment.

Two years after the HBO Max deal, Paramount struck a new accord with Parker and Stone for $900 million, sealing their partnership and ensuring new episodes of “South Park” would be made. That deal runs to 2027, although Paramount executives have offered to extend that arrangement for several years.

Paramount has long intended to shift the show to Paramount+ as soon as the HBO Max deal expires.

The various parties have long envisioned a scenario where domestic and international rights would be shared by at least two different streaming services. Although neither partner would have exclusive rights, the current trend in television is for studios to maximize revenue to help pay for expensive programs, like “South Park,” while maintaining some streaming rights.

Paramount also has been dealing with another crisis that has been complicated by the Skydance merger. The company has sought to settle President Trump’s $20-billion lawsuit claiming subsidiary CBS News deceptively edited a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, an allegation CBS denies.

Trump’s case hasn’t been resolved, and the Federal Communications Commission has been slow to review Skydance’s proposed takeover of Paramount, extending the deal review.

The Skydance transaction has been pending at the FCC since last fall, leaving Paramount executives in limbo.