I’m Convinced IT: Welcome to Derry Just Set Up Major Stephen King Crossovers

There’s no polite way to say this: IT: Welcome to Derry is no ordinary horror show; it’s a bloody love letter to Stephen King’s shared universe. 

And I’m absolutely convinced it just cracked open the door to his biggest crossovers yet. 

After three episodes, we’ve seen more trauma, tragedy, and Easter eggs than Pennywise balloons.

The premiere killed off half the young cast; IT: Welcome to Derry, Episode 2, had the U.S. government trying to turn a supernatural entity into a weapon; and Episode 3? 

Let’s just say the cemetery chase left my jaw somewhere near the storm drain.

Poor Lilly (Clara Stack) has been through hell: her dad was mangled in a pickle factory, her friends were slaughtered before her eyes, and now she’s back in the infamous Juniper Hill psychiatric hospital.

For Stephen King devotees, it’s the clearest sign yet: Welcome to Derry isn’t just scaring us; it’s connecting universes.

The Pain And Paranoia Of Derry’s Kids

Every kid on IT: Welcome to Derry is fighting their own personal horror show.

Ronnie (Amanda Christine) watches her innocent father, Hank (Stephen Rider), get arrested. Will (Blake Cameron James) tries to find belonging in a cursed town. 

Rich (Arian S. Cartaya) is busy falling for Marge (Matilda Lawler) while doom circles overhead.

But no one’s carrying a heavier cross than Lilly. Her father’s gruesome death, ripped apart by machinery at a pickle factory while retrieving a toy she’d left, still haunts her breath. 

That guilt landed her in Juniper Hill once before, and now, after the theatre massacre, Chief Bowers (Peter Outerbridge) plays psychological chess with her trauma.

He insists that because she’s been institutionalized, no one will believe her.

When the entity appears in the form of her father’s reanimated corpse, a grotesque ‘pickle octopus’, Lilly’s nightmare finally comes full circle.

And once again, she’s shipped off to Juniper Hill, where terror hums beneath sterile walls.

Juniper Hill: Stephen King’s Most Haunted Landmark

If you’re a longtime Stephen King reader, the mention of Juniper Hill probably made you sit up a little straighter.

This isn’t its first rodeo. It’s shown up in IT, Castle Rock, Gerald’s Game, Needful Things, and even Insomnia. Henry Bowers.

Yes, a descendant of our own Chief Bowers was once a patient there after Pennywise’s defeat. “Space Cowboy” from Gerald’s Game spent time there, too.

It’s practically Maine’s most notorious fictional institution. In Castle Rock, Bill Skarsgård escaped from there after a fire.

So when Welcome to Derry brings Lilly back to Juniper Hill, it’s not just a haunting detail; it’s a signal flare to Stephen King’s interconnected universe.

The U.S. government’s interest in weaponizing Derry’s monster in Episode 2 also mirrors The Mist, where a secret experiment opened a doorway to other dimensions.

King loves his thematic rhymes, and Welcome to Derry echoes them with unnerving precision.

My Theory: Derry Is No Longer The Only Cursed Town

I can’t escape the feeling that Welcome to Derry isn’t just laying groundwork for Pennywise; it’s laying tracks for a King multiverse highway.

If Juniper Hill links Derry to Castle Rock, could we soon see references to Salem’s Lot, or maybe a cameo nod to The Dark Tower?

Stephen King’s worlds have always been tethered by invisible strings of madness, and this show seems ready to tighten those knots.

Lilly’s emotional spiral isn’t just tragedy; it’s metaphorical glue.

Her return to Juniper Hill might be the key that binds IT to everything else, perhaps even the moment the wider Kingverse officially bleeds onto television.

The kids’ discovery of photographic proof of “It” at the end of Episode 3 feels like a curse waiting to rebound. What if showing that evidence traps them all in Juniper Hill’s clutches?

What makes Welcome to Derry sting is how real the grief feels. Beneath every scare lies loss, guilt, and generational trauma.

Lilly’s not just a horror victim; she’s a broken mirror reflecting the town’s decay.

The show’s storytelling feels almost cruelly intimate. It’s not about monsters eating kids; it’s about the monsters that grow when adults look away.

As a fan, I’m loving how the show balances dread with emotion. Every episode so far tightens the noose between psychological terror and mythic horror.

So, What’s Next For IT: Welcome to Derry?

If you ask me, the next few episodes are gearing up for Bill Skarsgård’s return as Pennywise. We have clues: the fire, the psychiatric link, the cosmic echoes.

But beyond that, I suspect we’ll see Welcome to Derry evolve into a launchpad for other King adaptations.

Derry might just become the new Castle Rock of the Kingverse. And I’m both terrified and thrilled at the development.

If this is what the first three episodes deliver, imagine what horrors (and connections) lie ahead.

So, readers, what do you think? Are we finally watching King’s universe merge on screen?

Could Juniper Hill become the bridge to everything from The Mist to The Dark Tower?

Drop your theories in the comments; I’m dying (figuratively, I hope) to hear them.