It: Welcome to Derry Episode 2 trailer sparks theater massacre twist theory

As fans gear up for the next slice of horror in It: Welcome to Derry Episode 2, the trailer for the next chapter has sparked a devastating theory about the theater massacre. Warning: Major spoilers ahead…

The first episode of the season started out strong, with numerous jump scares, DC Comics references, and a killer ending. The show takes place 27 years before Andy Muschietti’s first IT movie, when the entity also known as Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard) starts munching on kids like popcorn at the Derry theater.

The episode ended with a demonic bat baby ripping Teddy Uris (Mikkal Karim-Fidler) in two, before feasting on the Malkin siblings in a blood-soaked crescendo. It’s Muschietti’s way of warning the audience that nobody is safe in the series, and all bets are off (aside from The Shining’s Dick Hallorann, of course).

But the promo trailer for It: Welcome to Derry Episode 2 has fans theorizing that not everything is as it seems with the theater massacre.

Fans think It: Welcome to Derry Episode 2 will reveal the theater massacre was a hallucination

Horror fans are theorizing that It: Welcome to Derry Episode 2 will reveal that the theater massacre didn’t take place at all and was just another way that Pennywise is torturing the kids.

The theory comes from BrainPilot on Youtube, who pointed out that in the Episode 2 trailer, there are snippets of Lilly (Clara Stack) where she says, “No one’s gonna believe me,” alongside shots of her waking up in bed. The theory suggests the theater massacre was actually a dream, and the kids are still alive.

If It: Welcome to Derry Episode 2 walks back those brutal, tragic murders then it’s going to be pretty disappointing, because the event made such an impact on the audience. Then again, Muschietti has made it very clear that he wants to keep viewers on their toes, so it’s not impossible that he’s packed an extra twist into the episode.

“You want to create an event that gives the audience a sense that if these kids were smoked at the end of the first episode, nothing is sacred,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “In this world, no one will be safe. So, technically, that was the intention.”