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It: Welcome to Derry actor Kimberly Norris Guerrero says Native Americans finally have a seat at the table in a Stephen King story
It: Welcome to Derry’s Kimberly Norris Guerrero praises HBO for finally putting indigenous representation in a Stephen King story
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For Kimberly Norris Guerrero, joining the cast of It: Welcome to Derry was a big deal. Not just because it was a prestige HBO show, and not just because it would feature the return of the carnivorous clown Pennywise. For Norris Guerrero, a Native American actress, the role means that indigenous people finally have a seat at the table in a Stephen King story.
“It’s the Stephen King universe, and it is a family. But it’s a family that we’ve been left out of,” Norris Guerrero says during a panel at New York Comic Con. “The Natives have been there, but we’ve never been able to join you all at the table. And it was like, we have stories too. And boy, what a story. And so, it was such a deep blessing and entire life’s work.”
“I’ve spent my life working to bring our stories to the world and to help give space for our voices. I have never been to a reservation or a Native American community that did not have a place where you do not go. You do not go, because you do not know. I play a character named Rose. Rose knows. It’s undergirding so much of the Stephen King universe is this sense of something is going on with the land. The land remembers, even though we’ve forgotten. And there is something dwelling there that could be very harmful and we don’t understand.”
“It was such a gift to get to play this indigenous character that has all this ancestral knowledge that’s been passed down from generation to generation. Rose knows my community, and this story knows everything that happened before Derry was Derry. And there was a first Losers Club, and that Losers Club was a group of indigenous kids. And my character plays a direct descendant of those kids, and so you’re going to get to be a part of our family as we get to tell this story and go dive deep into the origins of what terrifies us the most about It.”
It: Welcome to Derry premieres October 26, 2025 on HBO.
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