Stephen King’s New Show IT: WELCOME TO DERRY Will Explore Shared Universe and Dark Tower Connections
For years, Stephen King’s stories have teased fans with an interconnected web of characters, towns, and cosmic horrors. From the cursed streets of Castle Rock to the blood-soaked sewers of Derry, Maine, King’s worlds have always been linked by more than just Easter eggs.
At the center of it all stands his magnum opus, The Dark Tower, which explains how every novel and nightmare ties into a single, sprawling multiverse. HBO’s upcoming series It: Welcome to Derry isn’t shying away from this mythology, in fact, it’s diving headfirst into it.
Director Andy Muschietti, who brought Pennywise to the big screen in the 2017 and 2019 It films, explained to TV Insider just how deep this connection will go.
“The purpose of the show, among others, is to open a window to the other side… and give the audience the feeling that everything they know about the book and stories and movies is just the tip of the iceberg.
“Everything that is on the other side, it’s connected to the Dark Tower because it’s the same universe, the macroverse.”
That’s a pretty interesting statement for fans who have spent decades piecing together King’s literary puzzle. Muschietti made it clear that this isn’t just about winks and nods.
“Of course, being It, we are seeing all this from the perspective of humans, mostly. In this series, there will be more than speculation.”
Set in the 1960s, Welcome to Derry will explore the town’s history long before the Losers’ Club ever faced off against Pennywise. King’s 1986 novel hinted at centuries of blood-soaked rituals and cycles of terror, and this prequel takes advantage of that foundation.
By focusing on Derry decades before the events of the film adaptations, the series has the freedom to connect the town’s sinister past with other haunted corners of King’s Maine. Locations like Jerusalem’s Lot (Salem’s Lot) and Castle Rock (The Dead Zone, Cujo) are practically neighbors, and the idea of their supernatural histories bleeding into Derry’s makes the show’s scope even bigger.
But the most exciting promise is its connection to The Dark Tower. Pennywise is more than a clown lurking in the shadows, he’s an interdimensional creature from the “Macroverse,” also known as Todash Space in The Dark Tower.
This void exists between countless worlds, filled with eldritch horrors. Pennywise’s eternal rival is Maturin, the cosmic turtle who is one of the Guardians of the Beams that hold up the Dark Tower itself.
The films only teased this mythology, but the series is primed to go further. Muschietti’s talk of “glimpses of the other side” hints at a visual exploration of the Macroverse, something fans have been craving for years.
By placing Derry’s curse within the greater tapestry of King’s shared universe, It: Welcome to Derry could be the first adaptation to truly embrace the cosmic scale of King’s interconnected stories.
It: Welcome to Derry premieres on HBO October 26, 2025.