How IT: WELCOME TO DERRY Brilliantly Connects to THE SHINING and Expands Stephen King’s Universe
One of the things I’m enjoying most about It: Welcome to Derry is how it’s weaving together different threads from Stephen King’s massive literary universe.
The show promised to explore the origins of Pennywise and expand the mythology beyond IT, and it’s already delivering on that in a big way.
The second episode not only dives deeper into Derry’s haunting history, but it also reveals how the story ties directly to The Shining, and the connection is a lot deeper than a simple Easter egg.
Spoilers below for Episode 2 of IT: Welcome to Derry
The show introduces Chris Chalk as Dick Hallorann, the same character who plays a crucial role in King’s The Shining. At first, his appearance seemed like a fun nod for longtime fans, but Episode 2 completely reframes that. It turns out Hallorann isn’t just passing through, he’s central to the story’s larger supernatural mystery.
The episode reveals that the U.S. Air Force has a secret operation stationed just outside of Derry, codenamed Operation Precept, led by James Remar as General Francis Shaw. Shaw has discovered that something dark and ancient lives beneath Derry, an entity capable of projecting fear so intense it can shatter even the strongest minds.
Instead of trying to destroy it, Shaw believes he can weaponize it. With global tensions rising and the threat of nuclear war looming, the general sees this monstrous power as a potential advantage.
To track and capture this force, Shaw recruits Hallorann for a very specific reason. Within King’s mythology, “the shine” is a psychic gift, an ability to sense, communicate, and connect with supernatural energies.
It allows those who possess it to see what others can’t, to interact with spirits, and to feel the lingering psychic scars left behind by great tragedy. Shaw realizes that someone with Hallorann’s gift could actually locate the source of Derry’s evil.
Using his shine, Hallorann becomes the military’s guide through Derry’s haunted landscape. He’s drawn to the psychic residue of violence the town has accumulated over decades, tracing the aftermath of Pennywise’s cyclical rampages.
One sequence shows Hallorann leading Shaw’s team to the site of a long-buried car filled with the skeletal remains of mobsters, victims of one of Derry’s past massacres.
As the military maps out the monster’s hunting grounds, Hallorann’s experiences take a personal toll. Each encounter with Derry’s darkness tests his strength and deepens his understanding of his gift.
This backstory gives powerful new context to the man we later meet in The Shining, the calm, compassionate mentor who helps young Danny Torrance understand his own psychic ability. The events in Derry clearly shaped him, turning his shine from a mysterious talent into hard-earned wisdom.
By connecting It: Welcome to Derry with The Shining, the series is building a unified, interconnected King universe, which is so cool. These stories have always shared echoes of one another, but now we’re finally seeing those threads pulled together on screen in a way that feels both creepy and meaningful.
New episodes of It: Welcome to Derry drop every Sunday on HBO, and if Episode 2 is any indication, the horrors of Derry are just beginning to unfold.