It: Welcome To Derry - How The Military Discovered Hallorann's Powers, Explained

Warning: spoilers for "It: Welcome to Derry follow.

"It: Welcome to Derry" hasn't yet revealed how the military discovered Dick Hallorann's psychic abilities. According to actor Chris Chalk, while the origin of his character's unofficial conscription goes unaddressed in the show, there were discussions about how Hallorann got caught up in the Derry saga, and the prevailing theory is that it all began with a harmless game of cards.

"Stranger Things" might be back for its fifth and final season, but there's room for two horror series that involve a small town beset by supernatural occurrences that have attracted the attention of the U.S. military. "Welcome to Derry" continues to delve into the history of the titular entity and town, playing out exactly 27 years before "It Chapter One" (2017) and 54 years before "It: Chapter Two" (2019). It emerges every 27 years to terrorize Derry, and the HBO series follows It's 1962 ascent. 

Beyond another excuse to showcase Pennywise's uniquely personal brand of cruelty, the show is ultimately interested in delving into the "why" of it all. "Welcome to Derry" aims to answer three main questions across what the creators hope will be a trilogy of seasons, all of which have to do with unpacking the history of It's arrival on Earth and what it wants from the citizens of the New England town serving as its hunting ground.

This journey has involved Hallorann, the psychic mentor to Danny Torrance in "The Shining," who spent several of his younger years in Derry working for the U.S. Army. In the show, the Army uses Hallorann to track down a "weapon" buried beneath the town that could end the Cold War. But we've yet to see just how Chalk's character wound up working for the military in the first place.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Chalk was asked about how the Army came to discover his character's psychic powers. "I think [co-creator/director Andy Muschietti] would still stick to this, but we talked about a card game," explained the actor. "He was down South, playing a card game and winning too much. Then, through some sort of setup, they realized, 'Oh, this guy's kind of special. Lock him up, don't care.' Eventually, they found a use for him."

Thus far, Halloran is the most obvious example of how the surprisingly gruesome "It: Welcome to Derry" connects to wider Stephen King lore. The character originally appeared in King's 1977 novel "The Shining" and subsequently received a mention during a flashback in 1986's "It." Since then, he's been played by multiple actors across several adaptations, the most notable example being Scatman Crothers in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 adaptation "The Shining." But Halloran has also been portrayed by Melvin van Peebles in the 1997 "Shining" miniseries and Carl Lumbly in the 2019 sequel adaptation "Doctor Sleep."

In "Welcome to Derry," Halloran is depicted as a stooge of the U.S. Army. The military is attempting to harness his telepathic powers, aka his "Shine," to uncover a weapon that sits below Derry itself. But it's clear that Hallorann isn't an entirely willing participant in any of it, with the character being routinely threatened and belittled by the Army leadership for failing to successfully locate this mysterious weapon.

While the details of Dick Hallorann's capture by the Army aren't ever revealed in "It: Welcome to Derry," clearly, Chris Chalk and the writers had a rough backstory in mind. In his THR interview, Chalk went on to add, "In my brain, [Hallorann] wasn't used for a while, and he sat in a dark, damp room until [the Army] said, 'We've got something for you, Hallorann, and then you can be set free.' He really has to succeed at this, or he's going back to that little underground prison."

Even with that explanation, questions remain. For one, was the Army aware that psychic powers were a thing before they found Hallorann? Were they looking for someone with such abilities, or was Hallorann's discovery by the military a major moment in the history of the Stephen King-verse? While we await answers to those questions and more, we do know that James Remar's General Francis Shaw was at least aware of the existence of the supernatural before arriving in Derry to locate the weapon. 

"Welcome to Derry" episode 3 reveals that a young Shaw was terrorized by It as a youngster. When Hallorann was first discovered by Army personnel at that card game, perhaps Shaw was involved somehow. Having been exposed to the strange goings-on in Derry, the General was likely looking for a way to explore the secrets behind the supernatural world and wouldn't have been too surprised to learn of a psychic individual capable of delving into the minds of others. Whatever the explanation, if "Welcome to Derry" does indeed manage to go for three seasons, we should learn a heck of a lot more about Hallorann, including what's in his mysterious box.