As Pennywise’s reign of terror came full circle in IT: Welcome to Derry, the show’s co-creators made a snap decision to include a cameo from the movies.
Andy Muschietti and Jason Fuchs recently explained how Sophia Lillis‘ cameo as Beverly Marsh ended up in the epilogue scene of last week’s Season 1 finale ‘Winter Fire’, which is now available to stream on HBO Max.
“It was important for me to make a stronger connection to the movies,” Muschietti told Entertainment Weekly of the finale, which he directed. “The idea of bringing Beverly back in the epilogue was a last-minute idea.”
Set before the events of IT: Chapter One (2017) and Chapter Two (2019), the epilogue shows Beverly and her father grieving over her mother’s body after she died by suicide at Juniper Hill Asylum. An elderly Ingrid (Joan Gregson), who’s been institutionalized since seeing the evil entity’s Deadlights in 1962, walks into the room and attempts to comfort Beverly.
“Oh dear, don’t be sad. You know what they say about Derry; no one who dies here ever really dies,” Ingrid tells her, mirroring her encounter with Jessica Chastain‘s adult Beverly in the 2019 sequel.
“That scene takes on a different meaning when you go back and rewatch,” explained Fuchs. “Beverly might not remember that encounter, but somewhere that’s deep in the recesses of her mind. Now you understand why It would choose that form to take. This is a deep-seeded memory of hers. The most traumatic moment of her life is linked to an early encounter with Mrs. Kersh.”
Noting another ‘Losers Club’ cameo in the finale, Fuchs explained, “Once we made the decision to see the wanted poster of Richie and you see Finn Wolfhard’s face, it suddenly whet our appetites to see a little bit more of the Losers from that first film.”
