New IT Show May Include the Biggest Stephen King Character Cut From the Movies

The upcoming IT: Welcome to Derry will tell the next spine-tingling tale of terror of the IT franchise, and it could include a pivotal Stephen King character with a major role in the author’s interlinking body of work. Based upon King’s eponymous (and very lengthy) novel, Andy Muschietti’s IT movies center on a group of friends known as the Losers Club from the sleepy town of Derry, Maine, and their battle with the monstrous, supernatural clown known as Pennywise. Muschietti’s IT movies split the story into two parts of the Loser’s showdowns with Pennywise as children and adults, while Welcome to Derry will take place in the early ’60s. A new rumor also suggests that a character only alluded to in IT: Chapter Two might make an appearance, the character being the ethereal cosmic turtle Maturin.

Per Andy Muschietti in an interview with TV Insider, Welcome to Derry will dive into the larger Stephen King universe, stating that the show is to “give the audience the feeling that everything they know about the book and stories and movies is just the tip of the iceberg” in terms of the larger cosmic backstory of Pennywise and King’s IT novel. Muschietti has also stated that these elements of the show are “connected to the Dark Tower because it’s the same universe, the macroverse.” This seemingly indicates that Maturin the Turtle could appear on Welcome to Derry in some capacity, an outcome that Stephen King fans should rejoice to hear for the possibilities it opens.

Who Is Maturin the Turtle in Stephen King’s Literary Cosmos?

Maturin is one of the most pivotal beings in Stephen King’s interconnected reality (which Welcome to Derry might helping set up in movies and TV), a wise, gigantic turtle who is one of the cosmic guardians who helps support the Dark Tower that is a pillar of reality itself in King’s cosmology. Maturin mostly keeps to himself as an observer of events unfolding throughout the multiverse, but he occasionally gets directly involved in matters of great importance. Maturin is also well-known for his rather casual role in the creation of the main universe of King’s cosmology, literally vomiting the universe into being after a bad stomach ache.

As an enemy of IT, Maturin also plays a major role in assisting the Losers Club in defeating Pennywise in King’s IT novel. Specifically, Maturin provides Bill Denbrough with advice to defeat Pennywise during the Ritual of Chüd, with the pep talk ultimately aiding the Losers in defeating Pennywise. The sheer scale of Maturin as a character makes him one who most readily fits into a story like the IT movies in cameo form. Sadly, that did not end up coming to pass with Muschietti’s two big-screen adaptations of IT.

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Maturin Wasn’t in the IT Movies (but Should Be a Part of the IT Franchise)

While the Ritual of Chüd features prominently in the Losers’ efforts to defeat Pennywise for good in IT: Chapter Two, Maturin is MIA from Andy Muschietti’s IT movies. However, the kind-hearted space turtle does still get an Easter egg reference in the form of a turtle-shaped paper weight on a teacher’s desk when the adult Beverly Marsh (Jessica Chastain) visits Derry Elementary School in IT: Chapter Two. Despite Maturin’s overall absence from the IT movies, that one little nod seems like an acknowledgment on Muschietti’s part of the character’s importance to IT and King’s overall literary multiverse.

Maturin may not have jumped in to give Bill a much needed rallying cry during the Losers’ battle with Pennywise, but his role in the IT novels still establishes great possibilities for him to appear in IT spin-off projects like Welcome to Derry. Maturin’s role as both a timeless enemy to Pennywise and his role in bringing the universe into existence both provide plenty to establish Maturin as the major figure in Pennywise’s history in Welcome to Derry, so the possibility of Maturin appearing or at least being referenced is one well worth diving into.

How Maturin Could Appear on IT: Welcome to Derry

Welcome to Derry is not a Pennywise origin story, per se, but one that nonetheless delves into his long history of terrorizing the denizens of Derry at least as far back as the early ’60s. Muschietti has also spoken of further seasons of Welcome to Derry going back even further in time, and therein could lie a perfect window to introduce Maturin. Perhaps the easiest way to do so would be to simply transplant Maturin’s role as an ally to the Losers into the story of another group of protagonists who battled Pennywise previously.

Essentially, another group could meet Maturin via the Ritual of Chüd in the same way the Losers do in King’s novel, which itself could lay some groundwork for how the ritual comes into play for the Losers decades later in IT: Chapter Two. It wouldn’t be the first time a Stephen King adaptation has pulled a trick along those lines, either, with 2019’s Doctor Sleep essentially working the ending of The Shining novel in its story to balance the movie’s role in reconciling King’s novel with Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 movie. Maturin ultimately might have been too big of a character, literally and figuratively, to work into the IT movies and do him justice, but with IT: Welcome to Derry potentially setting up Maturin’s live-action debut, it be just the place for the kindly space turtle to enter the modern IT franchise and expand the possibilities for it.

IT: Chapter One and IT: Chapter Two are both available to stream on HBO Max, and IT – Welcome to Derry will debut on HBO on October 26th.

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