🔗 Share this article Make Time For One Legendary Stephen King Cinematic Before It: Welcome to Derry's Upcoming Installment HBO's Welcome to Derry is packed with connections to Stephen King's wide-ranging collection of tales. Apart from the obvious ties to It, the show includes a direct link to King's famous novel through the appearance of a young Dick Hallorann. Currently, as the story unfolds, Welcome to Derry is weaving in one more beloved King story which merits a revisit. The Powerful Story of The Shawshank Redemption While Shawshank Redemption isn't typically considered horror, particularly compared to much of the author's additional work, it is a gripping story about an wrongfully convicted individual sentenced to spend the rest of his life inside a infamous prison. And it's that very penitentiary that becomes central in this context, as Shawshank State Prison possesses significant history throughout King's stories — a pattern which persists in It: Welcome to Derry. Among the tales that reference Shawshank include Dolores Claiborne, Needful Things, Apt Pupil, 11/22/63, as well as It. Via these narratives, we discover regarding the terrible life at the state penitentiary and some of the inmates within, such as the partner of a belonging to Pennywise's early victims, who had been found guilty for robbery with a weapon. So far, however, the most we've learned about the prison was via the perspective of Andy Dufresne from The Shawshank Redemption, portrayed by the actor Tim Robbins in that 1994 movie. Andy winds up in Shawshank after his wrongful conviction, and finds himself assaulted and raped by fellow inmates, and taken advantage of by those in authority figures for his financial knowledge. He requires nearly three decades to dig an escape route from Shawshank, prior to crawling "through sewage" to take back his freedom. Shawshank's Appearance in Welcome to Derry Regarding the series, viewers first learned about the prison's inclusion from an early trailer for the series, where a prison bus was seen bearing the title displayed on its side. During the second episode, it is revealed who is probably destined for the prison. Though we know he did not responsible for the child deaths in the first episode, the character Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider), dad to Ronnie (Amanda Christine), gets taken into custody for the crimes. A teaser for episode 3, "Now You See It," shows a guard telling Hank in his cell, "Do you know what happens to child murderers at that prison?" The Implications for the Character and Ronnie Given that the real murderer in Derry is a primordial entity from another world hunting and murdering children, Hank's chances of proving his innocence appear slim. Even should he does go to Shawshank and the audience don't follow him there, understanding what we do regarding Shawshank makes it clear that his experience would not be enjoyable. More importantly, though, this development could threaten Ronnie. Hank is her protector. Horrible things are occurring around Derry which no one, child or adult, understands and Ronnie only has her recently formed of friends to depend on. She's going to need her dad as the story progresses, however should the prison system plays a role, she may be out of luck. One thing is apparent: Hank doesn’t have 28 years to dig his way out. It: Welcome to Derry episodes 1 and 2 are currently available on HBO Max. Additional installments are released each week on Sundays.