IT: Welcome to Derry – Stephen King’s Multiverse Connections
Fans of Stephen King’s novels know that these tales of small-town terror and tortured souls aren’t standalone stories. They’re part of a larger storytelling multiverse where crossovers happen frequently. That’s true for
IT: Welcome to Derry – the HBO prequel series premiered on October 26, 2025, including connections to other King characters and storylines.
With the first episode having premiered on
HBO Max, this breakdown explores the key Stephen King easter eggs in Welcome to Derry and how the series takes advantage of the King multiverse. The show, developed by
Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, and Jason Fuchs, expands on the vision established in the films IT (2017) and IT Chapter Two (2019).
Decoding Derry: Stephen King’s Interconnected Horror Universe
How Welcome to Derry weaves through decades of King’s storytelling, from The Shining’s psychic abilities to The Dark Tower’s cosmic mythology
Jessica Chastain and Bill Hader portray adult members of the Losers Club in IT Chapter Two, showing how Derry’s evil matures with them – exactly what Welcome to Derry tracks in reverse through the 1962 feeding cycle. Photo Source: Warner Bros. Pictures
The IT Franchise in Numbers
Welcome to Derry joins an expansive universe that has terrified audiences for decades. Here’s how the IT franchise measures up in Stephen King’s multimedia empire.
$1.18B
Combined worldwide box office for IT (2017) at $704 million and IT Chapter Two (2019) at $473 million
27 Years
Pennywise’s feeding cycle, creating intergenerational trauma across Derry
1,138
Pages in Stephen King’s original 1986 IT novel published by Viking
1962
Year Welcome to Derry begins, 27 years before the Losers Club forms in 1989
James McAvoy’s Bill Denbrough embodies the survivor who remembers – a tension the prequel exploits by showing an earlier generation meeting Pennywise while adults look away. Photo Source: Warner Bros. Pictures
Pennywise’s Reign Across the Decades
Tracking the creature’s 27-year feeding cycle and how Welcome to Derry fits into King’s horror chronology, from ancient origins to the 2025 premiere.
Ancient Times
IT Arrives on Earth
According to
King’s IT novel, IT crashes to Earth via asteroid millions of years ago. Created in the void outside the universe, the entity settles in the area that becomes Derry, Maine, establishing a pattern of feeding every 27 years.
1715-1906
Colonial Era Massacres
European settlers face unexplained disappearances and catastrophes. The township experiences violence every 27 years, from the Bradley Gang massacre to the Kitchener Ironworks explosion that killed 88 children on Easter Sunday 1906.
1962-1963
Welcome to Derry Era
The
HBO series begins here. Children disappear while a new group of outcasts forms at Derry High School. Leroy Hanlon arrives at the Air Force base as Dick Hallorann senses the evil awakening.
1989
The Original Losers Club
The Losers Club (Bill, Beverly, Ben, Eddie, Richie, Stan, and Mike) confronts Pennywise after Georgie Denbrough’s death. They wound the creature and make a blood oath to return if IT resurfaces.
2016
IT Returns
Twenty-seven years later, children begin disappearing again. Mike Hanlon calls the now-adult Losers Club back to Derry to fulfill their childhood promise and end the cycle forever.
October 26, 2025
Welcome to Derry Premiere
HBO debuts the eight-episode prequel series, exploring the 1962 cycle referenced in Mike Hanlon’s research.
Bill Skarsgård returns as Pennywise, connecting past and present terror.
Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise leans into theatrical menace – and in the 1962 setting, that showman-monster meets Cold War paranoia and military ambition. Photo Source: Warner Bros. Pictures / HBO
Stephen King’s Character Crossovers
Welcome to Derry draws from King’s broader multiverse, featuring characters that bridge multiple novels and adaptations across decades.
🎪
Pennywise / IT
The Eternal Predator
An alien entity from the void beyond creation, IT crashed to Earth via asteroid. Feeds on fear in 27-year cycles, taking the form of victims’ deepest terrors. According to
The Dark Tower, IT is one of many creatures left when the mystical Prim receded.
→ Part of Dark Tower’s cosmic mythology
👁️
Dick Hallorann
From The Shining (1977)
In the IT novel, Hallorann saves Mike Hanlon’s father from the fire at the Black Spot. In Welcome to Derry, he’s stationed at the Air Force base in 1962. Nearly two decades later, he becomes head chef at
the Overlook Hotel in The Shining, where his psychic “shining” abilities make him sensitive to supernatural evil.
→ First major King crossover character
📚
The Hanlon Family
Three-generation witnesses
Leroy Hanlon (Air Force major, 1962), his son Will (child in 1962), and grandson Mike (1980s Losers Club member) become Derry’s archivists. Mike’s research in the original IT films reveals patterns his grandfather first documented.
→ Three generations document IT’s cycles
🐢
The Turtle (Maturin)
Cosmic guardian entity
Pennywise’s benevolent counterpart, created simultaneously in the void. One of the 12 guardians of the Dark Tower’s Beams. Represents hope and strength to those who oppose IT. Appears as charms and symbols throughout the series.
→ Part of Dark Tower’s Beam guardians
⚡
Danny Torrance
Indirect connection via Hallorann
Though not appearing in Welcome to Derry, Danny’s future relationship with Dick Hallorann creates a narrative bridge between Derry’s evil and the Overlook Hotel’s ghosts. Featured in
Doctor Sleep (2013).
→ Links IT to The Shining/Doctor Sleep
🗝️
General Shaw
Original character (1962)
An adult survivor of Pennywise who leads the Air Force base. Portrayed by James Remar, Shaw attempts to weaponize the creature during Cold War paranoia, representing human evil that rivals IT’s supernatural threat.
→ Created for Welcome to Derry
When the Losers return as adults, every clue points to cycles the town refused to break. Welcome to Derry goes to the source of that refusal. Photo Source: Warner Bros. Pictures
The King Multiverse Explained
Welcome to Derry isn’t just a prequel – it’s a node in King’s vast storytelling web where characters, locations, and cosmic forces intersect across decades and dimensions.
1
The Dark Tower Foundation
King’s magnum opus establishes that IT and The Turtle are both products of the Prim, the mystical energy that once bathed the multiverse. The Turtle is one of 12 guardian creatures protecting the Beams that lead to the Dark Tower at the center of existence. This makes Pennywise’s defeat in Derry part of a larger cosmic struggle detailed across King’s eight-book Dark Tower series (1982-2012).
Explore Dark Tower Lore
2
Dick Hallorann’s Timeline
Welcome to Derry places Hallorann in Maine during 1962, sensing evil at the Air Force base. The IT novel confirms he saves Will Hanlon from the Black Spot fire. Nearly two decades later, he becomes head chef at Colorado’s Overlook Hotel in The Shining (1977), where his psychic abilities make him sensitive to the hotel’s malevolent ghosts. He later rescues Danny Torrance, who features in Doctor Sleep (2013).
Read About The Shining
3
Shawshank Prison Reference
Early trailers for Welcome to Derry included a Shawshank Prison bus, connecting to King’s 1982 novella “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption.” Both stories share Maine as a setting and explore how institutions – whether prisons or towns – can trap people in cycles of suffering.
Warner Bros. Shawshank Page
4
The Hanlon Archive
Mike Hanlon’s role as Derry’s historian in IT (1986) gains depth when you realize his father Will experienced the 1962 cycle as a child, and his grandfather Leroy witnessed the beginning of that terror. Three generations of Hanlons document what adults refuse to see, creating an archive that helps the Losers Club understand their enemy. In the IT novel, Will Hanlon died of cancer in 1962.
5
Psychic Vampires Across Stories
IT isn’t the only creature in King’s universe that feeds on emotions. Doctor Sleep (2013) introduces the True Knot, who consume “steam” (psychic energy) from tortured victims. The Dark Tower series features Dandelo, a psychic vampire who feeds on laughter rather than fear. These shared mechanics suggest a common origin in the Prim.
Learn About Doctor Sleep
James Ransone’s Eddie shows how fear is negotiated through humor and denial – tools kids in Welcome to Derry also need when the town starts blaming the wrong people. Photo Source: Warner Bros. Pictures
Frequently Asked Questions
Key questions about how Welcome to Derry connects to Stephen King’s larger storytelling universe and the IT mythology.
Pennywise is the preferred form of IT, an ancient alien entity created in the void outside our universe. According to
King’s 1986 IT novel, the creature crashed to Earth via an asteroid millions of years ago and took up residence in what would become Derry, Maine. IT is a psychic vampire that feeds on fear, awakening every 27 years to hunt for approximately 12-16 months before hibernating again. Children are its preferred prey because their fears are more primal and easier to exploit.
The Dark Tower series reveals IT is one of many supernatural beings left behind when the mystical Prim receded from the multiverse.
Dick Hallorann is the head chef at the Overlook Hotel in
The Shining, which takes place in the late 1970s. In King’s IT novel, Hallorann is mentioned as saving Mike Hanlon’s father from the fire at the Black Spot. Welcome to Derry places him at the Derry Air Force base in 1962, nearly two decades before The Shining. Because Dick possesses “the shine” – powerful psychic abilities – he’s more sensitive than most adults to the supernatural evil lurking beneath Derry. His presence creates the first major crossover between IT and The Shining universes. Dick plays a role in battling Pennywise during this cycle, using his abilities to protect children the way he later protects Danny Torrance at the Overlook.
The Turtle – also called Maturin – is a benevolent cosmic entity and Pennywise’s opposite. Created at the same time as IT in the void, the Turtle represents strength, protection, and hope. In IT, members of the Losers Club encounter the Turtle during their psychic battles with Pennywise, and it provides them guidance.
The Dark Tower series expands this by revealing the Turtle is one of 12 guardian creatures that protect the Beams, invisible energy forces that lead to the Dark Tower at the center of existence. Turtle symbols appear throughout Welcome to Derry as charms and protective talismans, reminding viewers that cosmic good opposes cosmic evil.
The Hanlon family serves as Derry’s multi-generational witnesses. Welcome to Derry introduces Leroy Hanlon (portrayed by
Jovan Adepo), an Air Force major who arrives in 1962 with his wife Charlotte (Taylour Paige) and 12-year-old son Will (Blake Cameron James). Will experiences the terror of that feeding cycle. In the IT novel, Will Hanlon died of cancer in 1962, but his stories and documentation lived on. By the time the original Losers Club forms in 1989, Mike Hanlon becomes the town’s historian and archivist. His research into Derry’s cyclical violence draws on documentation his father and grandfather created. Mike is the only Loser who stays in Derry as an adult, and he’s the one who calls everyone back when Pennywise resurfaces in 2016.
Placing Welcome to Derry in 1962 allows the series to explore Cold War paranoia, the Civil Rights Movement, and military overreach. General Shaw’s attempt to weaponize Pennywise reflects real fears about governmental secrecy and the militarization of science during the Cuban Missile Crisis era. The series examines how Black and Indigenous residents of Derry face systemic racism while a literal monster feeds on children. By choosing this specific era, Welcome to Derry comments on how institutions fail marginalized communities – a theme King explored in the original novel but which gains new significance when viewed through the lens of 1960s America. The series received
a production commitment from HBO in November 2022.
The Shawshank Prison bus glimpsed in trailers suggests more references to King’s Maine-set stories. In January 2025, director Andy Muschietti revealed that three planned seasons are set in 1962, 1935, and 1908 respectively. If Welcome to Derry continues to explore earlier feeding cycles, future seasons could incorporate characters or references from other King works set in or near Maine, such as Pet Sematary, The Dead Zone, Cujo, or Needful Things. King’s interconnected universe offers possibilities for crossover content, especially since many of his Maine stories deal with similar themes of small-town secrets, supernatural evil, and the thin membrane between our world and darker dimensions.
Jessica Chastain’s Beverly demonstrates that Pennywise feeds on histories of abuse as much as spectacle; the prequel echoes this by foregrounding racism, militarization, and kids no one believes. Photo Source: Warner Bros. Pictures
Jeremy Ray Taylor’s Ben reminds viewers that Derry’s youngest witnesses see patterns first – which is why the series leans on school-age investigators to expose disappearances the town rationalizes away. Photo Source: Warner Bros. Pictures
IT: Welcome to Derry premiered on
HBO and HBO Max on October 26, 2025, with eight episodes airing weekly through December 14, 2025. The series was developed by Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, and Jason Fuchs, with Bill Skarsgård reprising his role as Pennywise from
the 2017 and 2019 films. The cast includes Jovan Adepo, Taylour Paige, Chris Chalk, James Remar, Stephen Rider, and Madeleine Stowe.
The series explores connections to Stephen King’s broader universe, including characters from
The Shining and references to
The Dark Tower mythology. Filming began in May 2023 in Toronto and was completed in August 2024 after production halted during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. The series received a 76% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 74 critics.
The material covered in this piece examined the multiverse connections, character crossovers, and Stephen King easter eggs present in IT: Welcome to Derry. Information about the series’ production timeline, cast, premiere date, and connections to King’s other works was discussed. The relationship between the 1962 setting and the original IT novel’s timeline was outlined.
