It: Welcome to Derry will probably be floating into your nightmares very quickly, and whereas the youngsters—Pennywise’s favourite feast—will probably be entrance and middle, grownup characters additionally take a outstanding function within the story. Most folk we meet have been created for the HBO sequence, which is about in 1962 and is a prequel to the occasions of the It films. However each Stephen King fan who’s ever checked into the Overlook Lodge is aware of Dick Hallorann.
Chris Chalk (The Newsroom, Shining Women) performs the psychically gifted character—most famously seen in The Shining—in It: Welcome to Derry. As he advised io9 at a latest HBO press day, he’s properly conscious of the legacy crafted by Scatman Crothers—who memorably portrayed Hallorann within the 1980 Stanley Kubrick film—in addition to Carl Lumbly (in 2019’s Physician Sleep) and Melvin Van Peebles (within the 1997 Shining miniseries). However he’s right here to current his personal interpretation of the character.
“With a purpose to create and manifest this model of Dick Halloran, I did observe these performances, however I didn’t—’examine’ is just too robust a phrase, as a result of that’s not what we’re doing,” Chalk mentioned. “If we had been doing Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining in 2025, then I’m going to check that efficiency differently, however all I’ve to do is see who he’s now and break him down backwards to who he was in an earlier time, after which it turns into about inventive freedom and the textual content. So it’s superior to have all of those choices of people that’ve had their variations of the efficiency, however simply as that they had their model, I knew I used to be going to get my model. No one requested me to imitate anyone.”
The youthful model of Hallorann that we meet in It: Welcome to Derry is an airman stationed on the Air Pressure base simply outdoors of city. This specific army set up has a fenced-off “Particular Tasks” space, the place Hallorann’s skills are pressed into service by Normal Shaw (James Remar). No spoilers on what they’re attempting to perform, however Hallorann will get sure privileges attributable to his distinctive significance to the mission. The downside is, all these psychological gymnastics take a painful toll.
“I believe the truth that Dick is even collaborating on this [mission] is proof that he’ll do something to not be trapped,” Chalk mentioned. “The worst factor he might probably do to himself, he has to finally do with a purpose to escape this concept of being trapped by Normal Shaw. He has to primarily assault himself and reopen trauma and reopen trauma and reopen trauma. However he needs to flee it so unhealthy that he’s like, ‘Okay, I’ll reduce myself if it’ll get me out of this.’ It’s an ideal factor to get to play an individual at their weakest, most fragile, and most determined factors. Like, that’s what we would like: to get to dig into the depths of a human.”
Elsewhere within the story, we encounter Hank Grogan, performed by Stephen Rider (Daredevil, Luke Cage). He’s the only dad of younger Ronnie (Amanda Christine) and the projectionist at Derry’s downtown movie show. Early in It: Welcome to Derry, he’s dragged into some messy drama that ties into the present’s examination of America, circa 1962—a spot stuffed with issues even when there’s not a demonic clown within the image.
Hank is a brand new character, however Rider had plenty of reference factors even with out pages from a King novel to contemplate.
“The factor about backstory is, it’s not such as you’re going to inform it,” he defined. “It’s extra about being very clear on his perspective and the world that he comes from and what he values. The truth that it’s the Sixties and he grew up within the Nineteen Twenties and Thirties and the place his dad and mom got here from, by way of even slavery—it’s so much to attract on. And most of us got here up, or our dad and mom got here up, via the Nice Migration. So there have been plenty of issues that I had entry to. However backstories are tough as a result of they will grow to be very fantastical. So if hastily I’m like, ‘What do I do with this? It sounds good, however I don’t know what I’m doing with this.’ So I had to ensure it served Hank, not simply Stephen’s fantastical world.”
Extra newcomers in It: Welcome to Derry are performed by Jovan Adepo (3 Physique Drawback, The Leftovers) and Taylour Paige (The Poisonous Avenger), although their final title is one It followers will acknowledge: Hanlon. Because the present begins, Main Leroy Hanlon has simply been transferred to Derry, along with his spouse, Charlotte, and their son, Will (Blake James), in tow.
Main Hanlon, we quickly be taught, has a top quality that may be distinctive in any context, however it’s particularly intriguing in a haunted place like Derry: he’s actually a person with out worry.
“It’s one thing that occurred via a mind harm, and I believe it’s one thing that he needs to ignore each time somebody brings it up, as a result of it does recall a second in his army profession that he’s simply not desirous to re-experience,” Adepo mentioned. “I spoke to [director] Andy [Muschietti] concerning the specifics of the harm and what it really means to be with out worry on this city the place the present is about being afraid. I leaned extra on the aspect of not being fully proof against worry however simply having the next threshold for it. And if it’s probably the most guttural worry that I’m proof against, the opposite sub-elements of worry are heightened so far as, you recognize, insecurity, fear, doubt, disgrace, and any of these smaller parts of it. I by no means performed Leroy as he’s simply impervious to any kind of jarring moments; he’s simply capable of stand up to a bit extra until it’s one thing that he actually, actually cares about, which we are able to assume is his household.”
Charlotte was energetic within the civil rights motion in Louisiana, the place the Hanlons lived earlier than transferring to Maine. Leroy would a lot quite his spouse maintain a low profile, particularly since he’s attempting to advance his army profession. However Derry has its share of injustices that catch Charlotte’s curiosity, and it’s laborious for her to withstand talking up for what’s proper.
“I believe she’s form of bursting on the seams,” Paige mentioned. “Residing in that dissonance may be very uncomfortable. Such as you’re at dwelling vacuuming and fascinated by what to make for dinner, however you even have a way that you’ve so much to supply the world, and also you’re curious and , and no one actually cares since you seem like you. It’s somewhat bit unhappy, it’s lonely, it’s boredom, and it’s simply residing in a world that doesn’t respect or worth what you need to supply. I believe that’s a very robust inside world, so her inside world is difficult and lonely.”
She added, “I believe Charlotte is aware of her husband’s coronary heart is in the best place, however she’s additionally confronting [him about] defending a rustic [that hasn’t given us anything back], and that’s difficult. So [part of their marriage is] form of understanding [that] that is our lives as Black individuals in 1962 and what alternative means and methods to form of climb out of what you had been born with.”
It: Welcome to Derry premieres October 26 on HBO.
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