"Winter Fire", the IT: Welcome to Derry finale, set up a second season in its closing minutes. The hour-long finale packed in several shocking revelations that have major implications for this popular Stephen King story. But fans were not shocked to hear the shout-out to The Shining, another iconic story authored by King.Fans were expecting The Shining set up ever since it was confirmed that Chris Chalk was playing Dick Hallorann in Welcome to Derry. While his inclusion may come off as a surprise, The Shining's Dick Hallorann was mentioned in the IT book as well, connecting the two novels. Dick in the IT: Welcome to Derry finale's third act informs Leroy that he is going to The Overlook Hotel.Who is IT: Welcome to Derry's Dick Hallorann? View this post on Instagram Instagram PostWe meet Dick Hallorann for the first time in the IT: Welcome to Derry premiere for a split second. But begins to appear prominently from the second episode of the HBO series. For those who don't know, Dick Hallorann is a fan-favorite character from The Shining, who has psychic powers like the novel's protagonist, Danny Torrance.In The Shining, Hallorann also goes on to become a father figure for Danny after the events of the book. Which is why fans were happy to see Hallorann's involvement in IT: Welcome to Derry. The Dick in the HBO series is younger and therefore not as wise as the one we meet in The Shining. In the HBO series, he is working for the military to track the demonic entity so that they can use it as a weapon.However, the seventh episode reveals that the military intends to use the evil entity as a weapon to keep the American citizens in line. They unleash IT on the world, but the entity turns on the military despite their help. As all hope seemed lost, the kids managed to put Pennywise back in his slumber. One of the people helping the kids is Dick.After restoring normalcy, Dick Hallorann reveals that a friend offered him the position of chef in an unnamed hotel, but fans know that it is The Overlook Hotel, the main setting of The Shining. Chris Chalk revealed how he prepared for his role in the prequel series in an io9 interview this October:“In order to create and manifest this version of Dick Halloran, I did observe those performances, but I didn’t—’study’ is too strong a word, because that’s not what we’re doing. If we were doing Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining in 2025, then I’m going to study that performance in a different way, but all I have to do is see who he is now and break him down backwards to who he was in an earlier time, and then it becomes about creative freedom and the text. So it’s awesome to have all of these options of people who’ve had their versions of the performance, but just as they had their version, I knew I was going to get my version. Nobody asked me to mimic anybody.”Why is the Overlook shout-out special?IT: Welcome to Derry separates itself from other adaptations of Stephen King novels because of one thing: it finally acknowledges the existence of other King Novels. As mentioned earlier, DIck was mentioned in the IT novel, but the previous adaptations left that part out. Welcome to Derry is the first adaptation to include the crossover aspect of Stephen King's books.Welcome to Derry is streaming in its entirety on HBO Max.