The IT: Welcome to Derry Season 1 finale not only connects to the IT movies, but directly sets up The Shining as well. In a sense, this was to be expected. Chris Chalk’s Dick Hallorann was one of the major players throughout all eight episodes of the show’s debut season, with his shine abilities making him a key part of the efforts to find, potentially weaponize, and ultimately defeat Pennywise. This was a considerable expansion of his role in Stephen King’s IT novel, where he’s only involved in the burning of The Black Spot story, and the finale takes it even further. Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Welcome to Derry Season 1, Episode 8.
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Dick has quite a direct battle with Pennywise towards the end of IT: Welcome to Derry Season 1, as he tries to trap the entity, but “tricky Dicky” is no match for the creature. Although It is ultimately defeated and sent back to sleep for another 27 years, still contained within the boundary of Derry, Hallorann decides he has seen quite enough and decides to get the hell out of town. He reveals that he’s headed to London to work as a chef in the restaurant of a hotel his friend is opening, which puts him on the road to his King future, as that’s the same job he has at the Overlook Hotel in The Shining.
Where The Shining Is Set & How Long After Welcome To Derry It Takes Place
Although some viewers may be wondering if Dick is headed straight for a meeting with Jack Torrance, there’s still some way to go before he gets there. The Shining‘s Overlook Hotel is actually situated in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, almost 5,000 miles away from London, meaning his journey will eventually bring him back to the United States. There’s also a large timeline gap, as Welcome to Derry takes place in 1962, whereas The Shining is set in the late 1970s, so there’s a gap of more than 15 years for Dick to hone his cooking skills.
Despite the timeline difference, Welcome to Derry does have an impact on Dick, and how we view The Shining. The show added more to his already dark and tragic backstory, and sees him pushing his shine abilities even further. We get to know and understand him more thanks to his prominence, and the greater room a TV series allows for fleshing him out, and so this really feels of a piece with his on-screen journey that goes on to The Shining and then Doctor Sleep.
It’s also possible that some of what happened to Hallorann between Welcome to Derry and The Shining could be explored. Mike Flanagan had previously pitched a Dick Hallorann movie that would’ve shown more of his youth, including the reveal of an encounter with Pennywise, and the events that led him to the Overlook Hotel. While that never happened, it shows the idea has at least been mooted before and, following the success of Welcome to Derry and how great Chalk is in the role, it wouldn’t be a shocker to see the broad idea revisited, instead focusing on what’s next for the character and then directly leading into The Shining. After all, “how much trouble can a hotel be?”
All episodes of IT: Welcome to Derry Season 1 are available to stream on HBO Max.
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