Entertainment

“It Felt Like Pulling Out Your Guts”

Published

3 weeks ago

17 November 2025

NewsAdmin

[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for IT: Welcome to Derry.]

Summary

The HBO series ‘IT: Welcome to Derry, is a prequel to the films, set in 1962 and exploring why the entity has chosen the form of Pennywise.
Indigenous consultants were a part of the creative team to help deepen Rose’s backstory with cultural authenticity.
General Shaw’s recovered memory strains his duty of mission when it comes up against his longtime friendship with Rose.

Developed for television by filmmakers Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti and co-showrunner Jason Fuchs, the HBO series IT: Welcome to Derry serves as a prequel to IT and IT Chapter Two as it delves deeper into the origins of the entity that permeates through the quaint town of Derry. Set in 1962, Francis Shaw (James Remar), a U.S. Air Force General who oversees the base near Derry, Maine, has set a plan in motion that requires the help of Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) and his psychic ability, along with Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo), an Air Force Major who just moved his family with no knowledge of the town’s sinister secret. Complicating matters is a friendship that goes back to when Shaw and Rose (Kimberly Guerrero) were just 12 years old and a terrifying run-in with one of the entity’s horrifying forms bonded them together.

During this interview with Collider, co-stars Remar and Guerrero discussed bringing your A-game to characters that live in the iconic world that Stephen King created, exploring the Indigenous element of the story, finding the relationship between their characters and how that affects who they in the series, why Rose has to stay focused on her duty, what draws Rose to Charlotte Hanlon (Taylour Paige), how General Shaw justifies putting his men in danger, and how they both felt while shooting the season finale.

Collider: What is the biggest intimidation factor when it comes to taking on a Stephen King story? When you’re telling a story that not only involves one of his most famous characters with Pennywise, but also has nods to The Shining and Shawshank Redemption, do you have to just stay focused on your character in that world and not think about everything else that comes with that?

JAMES REMAR: If you’re thinking about it as, “This is a Stephen King work,” once the camera is rolling, you’re in trouble. You don’t think, “Oh, I’m doing Shakespeare.” When you’re performing Hamlet, you’re just performing Hamlet. The best that I can perform General Francis Shaw, as I see him on the page, is how I’m going to overcome any sense of pressure or having to live up to something as lofty as the Stephen King universe. There have been many, many, many interpretations of his work, some have not been great and others have been absolutely spectacular. That’s what I want to have happen here, and it feels like it has.

I feel like the key to doing that is to just dive right in and to play this as deeply and as intensely as he has written it. Don’t hold back. Don’t think that you’re doing something for Stephen King. You’ve got to play that character as vividly as he writes it. He created this universe, and our showrunners, directors, producers, and writers interpreted it on the page for us, and we get to bring it to life. I don’t pressure myself with it being that way, but I do pressure myself, very intensely, to do it truthfully. I know these are characters, in the extreme. They’re iconic characters. They’re not fluff. You’ve got to really bring your A-game.

Kimberly, because your character is part of this story that is so connected to what is going on with the entity, what was that like for you to find?

KIMBERLY GUERRERO: It goes back to your original question about, what can I bring, individually and as a representative of our community, to the Stephen King universe? It was such a gift because I’m a historian. I got my degree in history, and I have so many connections within our community. Andy and Barbara [Muschietti] brought on this incredible Penobscot elder and consultant named John Bear Mitchell, so we had an immediate in with the Wabanaki people. The work began immediately, unpacking and breaking a part of the story that I don’t think Stephen could break, nor should he. He knows it’s there and he knows it has power, but he doesn’t quite know how to unpack it, and that’s okay. That’s the excitement of being able to be in a team, a circle, of storytellers. The story came through Stephen, and now it’s in this spiral. I’m able to step in, as are John Bear and all of the Indigenous people that worked on Welcome to Derry. We’re all able to then join into this dance, this storytelling circle, and bring this aspect of authenticity and backstory and origin to give it a depth that I don’t think it’s had before.

“He left such a huge hole in her heart that she never really allowed somebody to come into that space.”

Kimberly Guerrero as Rose sitting at her desk and writing in a notebook in IT: Welcome to Derry

Your characters have a long history in Derry and with each other. We also learn that Rose has a better sense of that past than General Shaw does, for various reasons. What was it like to understand and find that relationship between your characters? How important was it for each of you to understand their past and how that affects them in their present?

REMAR: We both have the past and the shared memory, but Shaw lost it for many, many years. When you leave Derry, you forget. That’s part of the tradition and the lore of the Derry lexicon. When you leave, you forget. When the cycle is over, there’s a vapor that settles down and everybody forgets. Shaw has a cellular memory of it. As I told her in our scene at the store, they administered a drug to me, which was this Cold War brainwashing drug that was probably LSD, or some kind of truth serum, and the memories came back. Everything flooded back. That tempered my performance and my understanding, and it allowed Shaw to go into her store in civilian clothes as her friend because he did remember. He hasn’t forgotten the fact that he’s a three-star general and that he’s the tip of the spear of the Strategic Air Command and he’s got millions of lives at stake, but he remembers that she’s his friend. He was able to just walk into the store by himself and not in uniform because of those memories.

GUERRERO: I don’t believe Rose ever got over the loss of Francis. He left such a huge hole in her heart that she never really allowed somebody to come into that space. She just guarded it and filled it up with duty and her community, and eventually this second-hand store. She’s a keeper. She asks Francis, “Can you keep a secret?” What you see unpack is that this is her best friend. That is the most intimate relationship that you could have, and she hadn’t had somebody that close to her, ever. Could it have been romantic? Probably so. It was that first love as well. It was based in that deep, deep, “You’re my best friend. Can you keep a secret?” And so, watching that unravel is heartbreaking. I couldn’t play that, but Kimberly is watching that happen and knows that Rose is going through that. She’s got to keep her eyes on the target and on her duty, even as her heart is breaking.

It also feels like Rose and Charlotte could actually be friends. Does that feel like the case to you? What makes their connection so special?

GUERRERO: It was that same kind of love with Taylour [Paige], as well. It was immediate. It was love at first sight and there was immediately a family connection, like a sense of family and protection. Something you won’t really see is that there’s a deep love and admiration that Rose has for Hank, for his daughter, and for his mom. She understands the sense of being othered in Derry but also being a part of the community. So, when she sees this lovely young woman bouncing up the sidewalk, she invites her in. She sold the telescope to her husband the week before. She knows the son is coming, and she also knows the cycle starting to fire back up. It’s all very fraught. There’s a sense of wanting to put my wing around her and protect her as much as I can.

General Shaw Puts the Mission Above Everything Else in ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’

“A commanding officer doesn’t have to divulge his motivations to his troops.”

James Remar as General Shaw with Chris Chalk, Jovan Adepo and Rudy Mancuso on the base in IT: Welcome to Derry

James, what does General Shaw think of Halloran and Hanlon? He’s using Halloran to do this work for him, and he brings Hanlon into it without really telling him about what he’s bringing him into. How does he feel about these two men? What does he think about who they are?

REMAR: A commanding officer doesn’t have to divulge his motivations to his troops. They’re there to follow orders. Shaw thinks he’s being very civilized and very generous with them. I know I just answered that as General Shaw. He doesn’t have to divulge anything to them. They’re not entitled to an explanation. That’s important to remember because the military is not a democracy. These guys are in the military, and they’re under Shaw’s command. The fact that I’m giving Major Hanlon a good gig flying on B-52s is the peak of achievement. He’s flying jets as a Black major in the newly formed U.S. Air Force. General Shaw is his pal.

Dick Halloran is in trouble. My character using his abilities gets him out of trouble and gives him a break. Shaw sets them up with their own little nightclub. He lets them off the hook when things could go much worse for them. I know it sounds harsh, but this guy is a three-star general with thousands of people under his command. He’s got an agenda, and he’s got a mission. The mission is somewhat sanctioned, but it’s a secret so he doesn’t have to tell them anything. He thinks he’s treating them pretty good, even though he’s putting them in danger. That, unfortunately, is the role of a commanding officer. Sometimes you have to put your men in the face of danger.

In a sense, he’s sending them into a war because this is an entity that you can’t just pull one over on.

REMAR: Shaw doesn’t know what the enemy has, in terms of firepower. The key to General Show being an effective leader is that he treats them with respect. He doesn’t baby them, and he’s not lying to them. He respects them. He says, “Fellas, here’s the mission. Here’s where you’ve got to go.” The best you can do as a commanding officer is to not be hysterical and treat your men with respect, and then they’re going to follow your orders.

Is he also the kind of general that is convinced that whatever they find and whatever happens, they’re going to win?

REMAR: Absolutely. He’s not sending them into the meat grinder. He thinks they’re going to come back. He always thinks they’re going to come back.

GUERRERO: Shaw has been called insanely optimistic, and I love that because it’s insane but it’s optimistic.

REMAR: He thinks they’re going to win. I’ve never liked arrogant officers. I prefer confident officers that are willing to do anything that they’re going to order their men to do. This character has got a chest full of medals that say, “I’ve been in combat. I’ve been wounded. Follow me. I’m leading the way.” He’s not some guy that’s just a desk jockey. He’s the kind of guy that commands respect. I’ve seen it in real life. My best friend was a captain in the New York City Fire Department. He had a chest full of medals, and his men would go into any building that he directed them to because they knew he’d done it too, and he would do it again. So, I’m of the opinion that General Shaw is a combat veteran, and these guys respect him.

James Remar and Kimberly Guerrero Warn of a Rewarding but Heart-Wrenching Finale

“It was tremendously rewarding.”

Without spoilers, when you guys learned how this season would end and how your characters would end up, what was your emotional reaction to that?

REMAR: I don’t think it has all ended up because it is an ongoing thing. My character’s time in this universe is coming to a close and I always have a mourning period when I have to let go of a character. I feel like my character’s denouement, his comeuppance, is all justified and very well-thought-out. It was extremely challenging to play. It was tremendously rewarding. It’s heartbreaking because I have to let go when I’m done.

GUERRERO: It’s just heart-wrenching. It felt like pulling out your guts. There was a moment when I told Andy, “I’m not going to be acting, so just know that it’s going to get ugly. I know that sometimes that doesn’t look good on camera, so just get on the God mic and tell me to do this or that.” I knew that once I started, I was going to be gone. It transcends acting. It transcends performance. I knew I was going to be in the moment, so I just asked them to shape it in a way that serves the story.