Is It: Welcome To Derry Based On A Stephen King Book (Timeline & Canon Explained)

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With the release of It: Welcome to Derry, many viewers are asking if the show is based on a book. While Stephen King fans may already know the answer, it’s a reasonable question. The series, It: Welcome to Derry, is a prequel that follows Major Leroy Hanlon, an Air Force pilot who moves his family to Derry for a confidential government job.

It doesn’t take long for the protagonist to discover that something sinister is happening in Derry. The town’s children are already being targeted, and this sets the stage for a confrontation with an evil force lurking below the surface. It: Welcome to Derry is packed with references for Stephen King fans, but some viewers are unsure if it’s based on a prequel novel and how that affects the established story.

It: Welcome To Derry Is Adapted From Elements Of Stephen King’s Original Book

Custom image by Simone Ashmoore.

While Welcome to Derry draws inspiration from Stephen King’s novel It, it’s not a direct adaptation. The series expands on stories King only briefly touched upon in the book. Specifically, it delves into the historical events of Derry, Maine, using diary entries from librarian Mike Hanlon—sections that appeared as interludes in the original novel—to reveal patterns connected to Pennywise’s reappearances throughout history.

Despite rumors, Stephen King never wrote a novel called Welcome to Derry. Unlike how Jerusalem’s Lot served as a prequel to ‘Salem’s Lot, there isn’t a similar backstory novel for It. However, the book contains a lot of fascinating history that could be expanded upon, and that’s what director Andy Muschietti intends to explore in his adaptation. The story’s setting and the time period offer a wealth of untold stories, particularly concerning the racial tensions of the era.

As Andy Muschietti told King (via THR)

Your book deliberately presents a mystery, like a puzzle with no immediate solution. We’ll be expanding on these unanswered questions and adding details to build a larger narrative – one that goes beyond what’s actually written in the book. This will essentially create a whole new, untold story hidden within its pages.

Interestingly, the story shows that Dick Hallorann from The Shining helped start The Black Spot, a bar in Derry that welcomed Black soldiers during a time when segregation was still common. Later, the bar was burned down by white supremacists, possibly under Pennywise’s influence. Dick used his psychic abilities, known as ‘the shine,’ to rescue people from the fire, including Will Hanlon, who was Mike Hanlon’s father.

That story is interesting on its own, but it was only briefly touched upon in the original novel, along with other events from Derry’s past. It: Welcome to Derry now lets us delve into Dick Hallorann’s military background and how he became connected to the town. It’s one of those compelling storylines suggested in the book but never fully developed.

Although It: Welcome to Derry closely follows the main ideas from Stephen King’s book, it significantly alters the story’s timeline and introduces some changes to established details.

It: Welcome To Derry Follows The Movies’ Timeline – Not The Book

Stephen King doesn’t really have a strict, unchanging set of rules for his stories. Over the years, he’s consistently added details, made adjustments, and even changed things he’d already established. This became more common as his Dark Tower series became the foundation connecting all his books and stories. While he does correct inconsistencies sometimes, King prioritizes a good story over perfect continuity.

Because the story connects to a vast, larger universe, It is open to many interpretations, and director Muschietti took advantage of that. It: Welcome to Derry is a prequel to Muschietti’s films, but it differs from the original book in terms of timeline. In the book, the Losers Club first faces Pennywise as children in 1958 and then again as adults in 1985. The movies update this, starting the first film in 1989 and It: Chapter Two in 2016.

Set in 1962, It: Welcome to Derry follows the events leading up to the movies. This places the story less than ten years after the Korean War, two years before the height of the Vietnam War, and during the Cold War and Civil Rights Movement. It’s a time just before the assassinations of JFK and Martin Luther King Jr., offering a glimpse into a pivotal moment in American history.

It: Welcome To Derry Makes Some Changes To King’s Inconsistent Canon

Andy Muschietti’s It films have already diverged from Stephen King’s novel, and the new series, It: Welcome to Derry, continues that trend. The book explains how to defeat Pennywise through a story from the Himalayas, but the films instead connect the answer to the history of Derry’s Native American population. It: Welcome to Derry will expand on this Native American connection, addressing some issues with how it was presented in It: Chapter Two.

Changes to established story details could lead to inconsistencies in the plot later on. For instance, the first episode of It: Welcome to Derry strongly suggests that Teddy is Stanley Uris’s uncle, and that Teddy’s brother is Stan’s father. Given what happens to Teddy in that episode, it seems likely Stan would have mentioned this family connection at some point in the original novel.

Derry has a long-standing pattern of ignoring and reimagining its dark history as a way to deal with trauma. Therefore, it’s believable that Stan would have a different memory of his uncle’s death. However, deeply disturbing family secrets like this rarely stay hidden forever. This backstory adds a tragic layer to Stanley’s suicide, suggesting he chose to end his life rather than confront Pennywise again.

Even if the new series, It: Welcome to Derry, takes some liberties with the original story, it still works as a horror show as long as it captures the unsettling atmosphere of the town. Stephen King himself has always been flexible with the details of his books, and what truly matters is staying true to the story’s core themes. Now, the series has the opportunity to put its own spin on the tale.

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2025-10-28 23:39