How does Castle Rock tie into IT: Welcome to Derry? Details explored in depth

HBO's It: Welcome to Derry wrapped up with a gritty season finale. In the end, after several ups and downs, the children (the '60s Losers Club) were successful in sending Pennywise back to the sewer/underground for the next twenty-seven years or so. It: Welcome to Derry serves as a prequel to the It franchise movies (2017 and 2019).

Stephen King's universe has never operated in straight lines. It loops, overlaps, and echoes across towns where fear thrives. With It: Welcome to Derry, HBO steps back into one of King's most infamous locations. But Derry doesn't exist in isolation. In King's universe, there are other towns where fear exists in equal measure, and one such town is Castle Rock, a fictional town in Maine.

The Hulu supernatural horror series Castle Rock brings several of King's elements to one show. There's a touch of The Shawshank Redemption, Misery, and the like. The two shows, though they share very few things in common, have shared rules, recurring ideas, and even a familiar cast member. Here's more about it.

How does Castle Rock tie into It: Welcome to Derry?

The most important tie between Castle Rock and It: Welcome to Derry isn't the plot; it's the philosophy. Castle Rock recreated King's world as a shared psychological space rather than a rigid timeline. The same approach is now central to It: Welcome to Derry. Both shows rely on supernatural elements and also tap into character building and drama. It: Welcome to Derry is a bit on the gory side, while Castle Rock eases out on violence and graphic elements.

Derry, like Castle Rock, is a town where evil things don't arrive; they resurface. The prequel leans into this very idea as Pennywise resurfaces and hunts for children. Instead of constant terror, there's denial, especially from the adults who know something is not right but refuse to act. The atmosphere mirrors Castle Rock's tone, where residents lived alongside horror for so long that it became normalised.

Even though both series have hardly anything else in common, there's one particular actor who has been a part of both shows. Bill Skarsgård, before he stepped into the HBO series as the scary clown Pennywise, played The Kid in Castle Rock. While the characters are not the same, his presence connects the series.

Castle Rock is not based on a single Stephen King work, so there are several Easter Eggs from his previous stories. Unfortunately, the Hulu series was canceled after two seasons. Season 1 dealt with attorney Henry Deaver, who came to the titular town and found the Shawshank prisoner, The Kid. Later, it was found out that The Kid was nothing but a second Henry from a different dimension. This season left viewers with several queries, but the next one moved to a different plot.

Season 2 serves as a prequel to the 1990 horror thriller Misery. It showed us a younger version of the antagonist Annie Wilkes, and her teenage daughter Joy, who got stuck in Castle Rock after an accident. Annie took up a job at a local hospital under a fake identity. She began to steal pills to keep her anxiety under check. However, when her landlord, John Ace, found out about her, she killed him. Ace pops up again (his soul is actually a reawakened priest from the 17th century) and forms a cult, which later takes Joy and Annie for a ritual, but they manage to escape.

In an unfortunate turn of events, Annie believes Joy is possessed and tries to drown her, but it's already too late. What she saw was just a hallucination. In short, it gives us a tour of Annie's messed-up past. To know what happens next, and how the story ties to Misery, watch Castle Rock, now streaming on Netflix.

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Also Read: It: Welcome to Derry- How the show made us realize what Pennywise's biggest weapon is

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