STRANGER THINGS Creators Explain Bob's Connection To Stephen King's IT

The creators of Stranger Things, the Duffer brothers, recently opened up to Vulture about that Stephen King reference featured in the third episode titled "Chapter Three: The Pollywog" when Bob Newby (Sean Astin) gives Will (Noah Schnapp) what turns out to be some not so great advice, but it sounds awfully familiar. Fans recently pointed it out, but now the creators of the show are opening up about it.

In the scene, Bob recalls a recurring nightmare he experienced as a child in which he was terrorized by a clown named Mr. Baldo. He even goes as far as impersonating the Clown from his nightmares which ends up sounding a lot like an impression of Tim Curry’s iconic take on Pennywise the Clown from Stephen King’s IT. 

During their recap Matt explained that Bob’s fear of clowns comes from their own and that they took this opportunity to connect to the author whose stories serve as a major inspiration for the series:

“Well, we both have a problem with clowns. I’ve had it my entire life. I had it when I was really little, so when there were clowns at a party, it was a real problem for me. Then in 1990, we saw the It mini-series and Tim Curry’s performance as Pennywise really messed me up. Like, it scarred me in a major way. It was one of the first true horror things I had seen, and I had not experienced Stephen King before. That was my first experience with Stephen King, so that was a really huge point in my life. It was two weeks, at least, of no sleep because of that. So yeah, I think [Bob’s clown story] was really me describing something that just freaked me out. I didn’t have that experience myself. I just had nightmares like that.

I’m sure we were just like, ‘It would be cute if [Bob] suggests moving to Maine, right next to Stephen King.’ Stephen King exists in this world. Some of the characters have read Stephen King. But Bob definitely does not read Stephen King. He’s not interested at all in Stephen King because he hates that kind of story.”

Stranger Things 2 is now streaming on Netflix and stars Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, and Noah Schnapp. The second season has added Sean Astin (The Goonies), Paul Reiser (Aliens), Brett Gelman (Jobs), Dacre Montgomery (Power Rangers), Danish actress Linnea Berthelsen, and Broadway star Sadie Sink.