‘Welcome to Derry’ is filling the hole left by this Stephen King inspired Hulu show
The world of Stephen King is vast. This year alone, we had two different Richard Bachman adaptations (King’s pen name). And with a body of work that is that great, there are bound to be references and connections in his stories. Like It: Welcome to Derry.
The Pennywise centric HBO series has been terrifying audiences since October but fans of King’s work may remember another series that mixed King’s iconography into one story: Castle Rock. The Hulu series brought Shawshank Redemption, Misery, Carrie, Cujo, and more all mixed into one story. Or, more specifically, King stories that all take place in the same fictional town.
It: Welcome to Derry features references to a lot of King’s work but more specific Pennywise’s story as well as The Shining. Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) is working for the military in Derry on the series and fans know him as the man who describes what the Shining is to Danny Torrence in King’s novel (and the 1980 film).
While It: Welcome to Derry is playing it a little more specifically with its references than Castle Rock did, the comparison between the two is still there. And the deeper we get into the lore of Derry and Pennywise’s story, the more it makes me miss shows like Castle Rock. But the two prove a very important point: King’s stories do go together.
It’s nice to see how King’s Maine is connected
There are a lot of way to compare the two shows. Bill Skarsgård being one of those points. But they do show how King’s novels, while very different from each other, do have themes that go well together. I don’t necessarily think that Stephen King sought out to connect all his stories every time he wrote another book. It is, however, fun to see how people can make those connections.
Castle Rock deserved more love than it did when it was on. Luckily, with Welcome to Derry, fans of the Andy Muschietti It films are already on board with the world building that those movies did. Maybe though the love that fans have for It and Welcome to Derry will lead to fans check out the Hulu series.
More than that, I hope shows like Welcome to Derry and Castle Rock inspire more people to make connections within King’s work. We got a Derry reference in Edgar Wright’s The Running Man and Joshua Odjick is in both Welcome to Derry and The Long Walk. It’s all fun and fascinating, especially for fans of King.
So if you haven’t taken the dive into Castle Rock, it is the perfect show to follow up your Welcome to Derry watch.
(featured image: HBO)
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