'Welcome to Derry' finale may connect to 'The Mist'

In Welcome to Derry, the writers explore the origins of the entity we know as “IT,” which will eventually become Pennywise. We know it came to Earth from another realm, inside a meteor, thousands of years ago. This information comes via members of the local Native American population. But it doesn’t necessarily come from another planet out in space. They suggest that it comes from another dimension. When Pennywise becomes unshackled from its cage in the season finale, a giant fog blankets Derry. One very similar to the one in The Mist.

Could it be that the entity Pennywise is from the very same dimension as the monsters from The Mist? All the creatures from that film are essentially animals, and don’t display any intelligence whatsoever. They are all predators of some kind. And clearly, Pennywise is cunning and smart and has language. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t come from the same reality as the beings in The Mist. After all, our own reality contains intelligent species like humans and also millions of animal species. Why couldn’t it be the same for the beings inhabiting this dimension?

The biggest tell that Pennywise comes from the same dimension is that it’s being destroyed in the season finale, It starts to devolve into many forms. One is the baby creature from episode one, and another is a large bat-winged creature. The latter is the creature that almost kills our heroes. This recalls the creatures that attacked the grocery store in The Mist. Is this another clue that it comes from the same dimension as that movie? The Mist explains how the creatures come from a world where physics are different. In Welcome to Derry, when they shoot Pennywise’s head, the blood floats upwards in wild directions, defying Earth’s physics as well. It’s a small connection, but certainly one that suggests a stronger link.

It is also plausible that this figure is simply another form that IT can take to gain flight. In the IT novel, Will Hanlon sees a winged birdlike creature when the Black Spot tragedy takes place. But that one had balloons on its wings. This one still had Pennywise’s face and was more batlike.

We should not overlook the fact that it was a foolish U.S. military operation that unleashed Pennywise in the season one finale. And it was a similar military operation that opened the dimensional portal in The Mist as well. Both on bases that are located near small towns in Maine. In the next two seasons of IT: Welcome to Derry, should they happen, we are sure to see more links to other works of Stephen King. So we might get a confirmation if these are indeed deliberate connections to The Mist, or if this is just a big coincidence. Right now, we’re leaning towards the former.

The entire first season of It: Welcome to Derry is now streaming on HBO Max.