‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Explained: The Many Stephen King Connections & References in Episode One

WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for It, It: Chapter Two, and It: Welcome to Derry.

Many Constant Readers believe that, despite publishing more than eighty titles in the last fifty years, Stephen King is actually writing a single, massive novel. His sprawling worlds may twist through a multitude of dimensions, but many of his most famous stories intersect through characters, locations, or events.

A tentpole of this expansive literary universe is Derry, Maine, home of the beloved Losers’ Club. First seen in King’s 1986 novel, It, the picturesque town also hides an ancient evil that emerges from slumber every twenty-seven years to feast on the fear of innocent children. Following the success of It and It: Chapter Two, director Andy Muschietti (along with co-creators Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs) returns to this dangerous hamlet with the HBO series It: Welcome to Derry. Drawn from the novel’s terrifying Interludes, each season will explore an earlier cycle of the shapeshifting monster’s reign of terror while building out King’s frightening world. 

Episode 1: “The Pilot” begins in the dead of winter. A down-on-his-luck boy named Matty (Miles Ekhardt) hitches a ride with a charming family, hoping to escape the dreaded town. While Matty’s time in this deceptive sedan will be shocking and brief, a radio announcement touts a more hopeful future. News of President John F. Kennedy positions this chapter in late 1961, two years before a time-traveling teacher will attempt to stop his assassination in King’s 11/22/63. Fans of the surprisingly romantic novel will remember that before Jake Epping tries to alter the future in Dallas, Texas, he will make a pivotal stop in Derry, crossing paths with Losers Richie Tozier and Beverly Marsh. 

Unfortunately, we’re not likely to see this emotional cameo due to the altered cinematic timeline. King’s novel begins in 1957 with the adult sections set in 1985. Muschietti moves this timeline up considerably with the adult Losers’ Club reassembling in 2016 to continue battling the deadly clown they first met in 1988. The first season of It: Welcome to Derry is more likely to feature the parents of our favorite Losers than any of the Club members themselves.

But that doesn’t mean we won’t see any familiar faces. While reacquainting ourselves with the dangerous burg, we travel to the Derry Air Force Base to meet its newest airman. Major Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) has been stationed at DAFB after a tour of duty in the Korean War. Fans of the 2020 miniseries The Stand will recognize Adepo as cavalier musician Larry Underwood, while Constant Readers will see a more It-centric connection. Leroy is the grandfather of Losers’ Club historian Mike Hanlon, who stays behind to keep the watch. We catch a glimpse of an older, disillusioned Leroy (Steven Williams) instructing his grandson on the proper way to slaughter cattle in early scenes of Muschietti’s It. Here, he is an optimistic young husband and father embarking on a new adventure.

As the Major deplanes, his copilot laments their transfer to this tiny town, assuming a lack of nightclubs and decent Chinese restaurants. The latter is a reference to Jade of the Orient, the restaurant in which the adult Losers hold their reunion, while the former nods to the doomed Black Spot. A nightclub created for Black DAFB servicemen, King’s novel describes the fiery destruction of the venue at the hands of Derry’s KKK. Given the racism we see upon Major Hanlon’s arrival at the base, it’s likely we will see this harrowing Interlude play out in later episodes.

No It chapter would be complete without a group of brave kids, and the 1962 cycle does not disappoint. Rather than meet in the overgrown barrens, this generation of Derry teens has built a clubhouse in the abandoned Standpipe. Closed due to a series of tragic deaths, the town’s water tower will become the site of Loser Stan Uris’ encounter with Pennywise disguised as the ghosts of drowned children. In 1962, Terry Uris (Mikkal Karim Fidler) and his best friend Phil (Jack Molloy Legault) discuss their own strange experiences on the building’s upper balcony. We don’t yet know how Terry and Stan are related, but they belong to the same devout Jewish family and are both studying for their upcoming bar mitzvahs when they’re attacked by the sinister entity. 

In the wake of Matty’s disappearance, Terry befriends another outcast. Lilly (Clara Stack) is a Derry High student recovering from time spent in Juniper Hill. This hospital for the mentally ill is known for its barbaric treatments and will be the home of bully-turned-murderer Henry Bowers—along with many more unfortunate souls who populate the pages of King’s Maine novels. We learn that Lilly was sent there after her own father’s tragic death, a horrific accident at the local cannery. While trying to help with a mysterious malfunction, he was pulled into the gears of a powerful machine, where his body was torn apart and packaged into pickle jars. This gruesome ordeal is a direct nod to one of King’s most grisly stories, “The Mangler,” which features an industrial laundry press somehow possessed by a bloodthirsty demon. 

Lilly references another of King’s stranger tales when she hears eerie sounds drifting out of her bathroom pipes. Peering into the empty tub, she spies human fingers poking out of the drain. Likely the appendages of Pennywise’s victims, this odd occurrence draws from “The Moving Finger,” an unnerving chapter in the author’s 1993 collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes. While using the bathroom, Howard Mitla is plagued by a gigantic finger poking out of his own sink drain, implying the existence of a gangly giant lurking somewhere in the plumbing of his urban apartment. 

Like members of the future Losers’ Club, Terry, Phil, and Lilly are outcasts at Derry High School, home of the jovial Bert the Turtle. Dark Tower fans will recognize Maturin, one of twelve guardians defending the interdimensional Beams supporting the Tower that stands at the nexus of all known worlds. Said to have vomited up our universe, this enormous turtle is a reclusive spectator to the horrors unfolding in Derry, but it provides young Loser Bill Denbrough with the key to the evil clown’s undoing. Throughout King’s worlds, Maturin stands as a virtuous talisman and reminder that even in a town plagued by otherworldly evil, it’s still possible for goodness to prevail. 

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