Stephen King fans are already hyped for the return of Bill Skarsgard as the infamous killer clown Pennywise in HBO Max’s It prequel series, It: Welcome to Derry. Now co-creator and director of the 2017/2019 movies, Andy Muschietti, has teased something more than originally expected – a potential connection to King’s Dark Tower novels.
The story of It, published in 1986, is one of King’s largest works. While both the 1990 miniseries starring Tim Curry as the evil force eating the children of Derry, and the movie remake, with Skarsgard skillfully taking over the role, hint at the larger universe outside of Pennywise’s hunting ground in Maine, neither project was able to dive into the cosmic realms King’s novel features. This included the role of the benevolent cosmic turtle Maturin, a creature that is also present in The Dark Tower mythology, and is described as one of the most powerful forces in all of creation.
While speaking to TV Insider ahead of the arrival of It: Welcome to Derry, Muschietti teased how the show will go beyond what has previously been shown in It projects and leave a trail of breadcrumbs to a much wider and more expansive universe. He said:
“The purpose of the show, among others, is to open a window to the other side… and give the audience the feeling. Everything that is on the other side, it’s connected to the Dark Tower because it’s the same universe, the macroverse.”
When adapting It for the screen, both versions of the story dealt mostly with the viewpoint of the young characters facing Pennywise and their fears, and their adult counterparts reliving the nightmares almost 30 years later. The prequel appears to be going far beyond a human story and taking a more mystical route to the origins of “the eater of worlds.” Muschietti continued:
“Of course, being It, we are seeing all this from the perspective of humans, mostly. In this series, there will be more than speculation. We’re gonna have that and give the audience glimpses of the other side.”
The Stephen King Universe Is About to Be Explored Like Never Before
For fans of Stephen King, the author’s interconnectivity between stories is legendary. From the setting of Castle Rock, the history of which flows through early novels like The Dead Zone and Cujo, Needful Things (when King first said goodbye to Castle Rock in explosive fashion), and the more recent Gwendy trilogy, to the dozens of novels and short stories that have some connection to The Dark Tower, King was creating cinematic universes in written form long before it became popular in movies and on TV.
However, showing those connections on screen has always been tricky in the past, and even the previous attempt to bring The Dark Tower to life in its own right proved to be a disaster. Of course, we now live in a time when everything has its own universe, and the boundaries of TV and movies do not mean quite the same as they used to. If there was ever a time for the true extent of King’s connected works to be realized on screen, then it is right now.
While It: Welcome to Derry will still be primarily focused on the origins of the evil Pennywise, Andy Muschietti’s tease of a Dark Tower connection can only help build hype for the unrelated, but well-timed, development of Mike Flanagan’s Dark Tower project at Prime Video. Although it is unlikely that these two shows will feature a true crossover, as rights issues are already tricky enough for The Dark Tower, there could certainly be a meaningful nod to the true epic scale of King’s universe in It: Welcome to Derry than has really been seen in previous projects.
The nine-episode first season of It: Welcome to Derry will float onto HBO Max in October 2025.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
