HBO Max Releases Halloween Prequel 'A Story of Derry' With First Live-Action Maturin
The special episode, set centuries before the main series, brings Stephen King's cosmic turtle to the screen for the first time in live action.
HBO Max released a special Halloween prequel episode of It: Welcome to Derry titled A Story of Derry, which marks the first live-action on-screen appearance of Maturin, the cosmic space turtle from Stephen King's work, according to slashfilm.com.
The episode is set hundreds of years before the main series and expands the origin story sketched in Welcome to Derry Episode 4. Kiawentiio plays Necina, a Shokopiwah youngster who goes hunting in the forbidden Western Wood with her friends. Isabel Deroy-Olson plays Kino and Michael Podemski-Bedard plays Maneese.
Maturin appears in an ethereal form to a character in a dream and tells the Shokopiwah how to use shards of meteorite glass to create a new cage for It. Zahn McClarnon plays a mysterious stranger who wields a knife made of glass meteor-rock and communes with the turtle by smoking powdered Maturin root.
Andy Muschietti's films It Chapter One and It Chapter Two featured a recurring turtle motif that continued in It: Welcome to Derry, notably as school mascot Bert the Turtle. Mike Flanagan recently laid groundwork for a larger Stephen King universe narrative with his Carrie TV adaptation and has been working on a TV adaptation of The Dark Tower for years.
Quick answers
What is the Halloween episode of It: Welcome to Derry called?
It is titled A Story of Derry and was released on HBO Max.
Does Maturin appear in It: Welcome to Derry?
Yes. A Story of Derry features the first live-action on-screen appearance of Maturin, who appears in an ethereal form to a character in a dream.
Who plays Necina in A Story of Derry?
Kiawentiio plays Necina, a Shokopiwah youngster who goes hunting in the forbidden Western Wood with her friends.