The IT: Welcome To Derry Trailer Has A Huge Connection To A Classic Stephen King Movie

The second official teaser trailer for the upcoming HBO series "IT: Welcome to Derry," a prequel to the events of the 2017 and 2019 "It" films, looks as creepy as we could've hoped for. It not only features the return of Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, but also marks the return of Andy Muschietti, director of those recent "It" films. The show seems to be going for all the same vibes as the more popular first movie, with the added benefit of a TV show that has more time to delve into the characters. 2017's "IT" felt like a speedrun through the book; "IT: Welcome to Derry" may have a more natural pace.

For a lot of Stephen King fans, the most intriguing moment from that teaser is a brief shot of a couple of convicts in a bus labeled "Shawshank State Prison." That's the same prison featured in the 1994 film "The Shawshank Redemption," an adaptation of a 1982 novella from King. Making it more interesting is that the prequel series takes place in the '60s, and main character Andy Dufresne doesn't make his escape from Shawshank until 1966. Does this mean Andy or Red will be referenced in this prequel TV show, or even shown to some extent?

Another question this connection raises: will the Shawshank prison we see in this show (assuming we actually see it) be the Shawshank from the beloved movie, or the Shawshank from the beloved novel? The two Shawshanks are similar, but there are a few differences thanks to writer/director Frank Darabont's changes to the source material. For instance, in the book the corrupt Warden doesn't kill himself at the end, and the prison as a whole is slightly less violent compared to the movie's version. 

Making the Shawshank reference even more intriguing is the fact that this "It" prequel has more creative freedom than the two movies. The main two timelines in "It" were already covered in the films, albeit moved up a generation. The book covers a lot of events during Pennywise's previous reigns of terror, but those moments were largely told through interludes between the main plot, featuring characters readers have never been particularly attached to. "It: Welcome to Derry" can change as much as it wants, while adding in some of the horror sequences from the main storylines that the movies didn't have time for. 

One of those sequences in the book featured a guard at a mental institution coming across Pennywise with a dog for a head. This was one of the scariest moments in the book for me, a moment that still creeps me out over a decade after I read it. The recent movies didn't have time for this scene, however, and the 1990 adaptation was a little too goofy to scare anyone:

It's easy to imagine a version of this sequence happening at Shawshank, rather than the mental asylum. Even if this exact sequence doesn't happen, there's still hope we might see Pennywise prowl the floors of Shawshank. We don't know how far Shawshank Prison is from Derry exactly, but we know they're both in the state of Maine and that Pennywise isn't always opposed to commuting outside the city for work. Throwing a supernatural monster into the setting of one of King's most grounded stories might make for an odd fit, but it'll be interesting to see what happens if these two worlds ever collide. 

It seems fitting that the "It" prequel series would feature a reference to "The Shawshank Redemption," because Stephen King's novels are surprisingly intertextual. Outside of the "Dark Tower" series you never need to read a previous King novel to appreciate a new one, but it definitely helps. If you've read "It," for instance, you'll appreciate a seemingly throwaway scene in "11/22/63" a lot more. 

"It" is perhaps King's most self-referenced novel overall, with references to Derry or Pennywise littered throughout his work. But in addition to being referenced constantly afterward, "It" itself features references to past King novels. Most notably, one of its interludes features Dick Hallorann, the telepathic chef we meet in "The Shining." Halloran enjoys a brief but memorable storyline in "It" that this prequel series is free to cover if it wants. 

That's right: "IT: Welcome to Derry" might feature extended references to both "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Shining," perhaps guiding casual viewers into a kind of Stephen King Cinematic Universe, much like the literary universe that King introduced his readers to decades earlier. With Mike Flanagan's expansive, reference-heavy "Dark Tower" series in production too, there's a chance that a proper SKCU is already underway.