It: Welcome To Derry Features A Nod To The Most Powerful Stephen King Character

This post contains spoilers for "It: Welcome to Derry" episode 1.

"It: Welcome To Derry" has arrived, and its first episode is already playing with timelines and incorporating certain characters from other much-loved Stephen King stories brilliantly. While Pennywise might not have made his official appearance just yet, one character that it's currently teasing is Dick Hallorann from "The Shining," who looks to be getting set up to play an even bigger part in the series than he did in the original "It" novel. The show is certainly playing fast and loose with some of King's most well-known characters, but one thing that it might struggle with just as much as the Andy Muschietti-directed films it's spinning off from is giant space turtles.

In the original 1986 novel, the leader of the Losers Club, Bill Denbrough, found a way to defeat Pennywise with the assistance of Maturin, a giant space turtle and brother to evil creature, who advised on how to bring the clown down. Appearing in various other King stories including "The Dark Tower" series (which is set to get a show of its own soon), Maturin is an enormous being of immense power, which explains why he couldn't be easily slipped into Muschietti's 2017 and 2019 films, but is referenced throughout both. Now, in this new story, set years before "It: Chapter One," it looks like that massive turtle is already making some minor appearances, beginning with one of the only survivors of that horrifying trip to the movies.

The short-lived search and rescue mission for Matty (Miles Ekhardt) consists of Lily (Clara Stack), who, like many of this group of kids, is tracking their missing classmate down out of guilt more than anything else. In her case specifically, we see a flashback revealing that in a quiet moment with Matty she traded a rocket charm from a box of Cracker Jack for a turtle ("Turtles are lucky"). For those not familiar with King's massive body of work, it's an easily overlooked little detail, but for those who have spent a fair amount of time in Derry, or indeed, the Macroverse, there's no doubt Matty's prize would've caught your attention.

This isn't a chance pick but an intentional one, just like in the first two "It" films that housed LEGO turtles, or the Losers spotting them during summer break swims, or Bill later chewing on a Maturin root to perform The Ritual of Chüd. In the case of Lily's charm, though, it begs the question of whether this mini-Maturin could play a part in future episodes of "Welcome to Derry" the same way that other trinkets did for the Losers in their inevitable battle with Pennywise. In a world where slingshots and bolt guns brought down a monster that couldn't be defeated by mortal means, could Lily's gift be the first of many items that might hinder It in the warm-up round that could with a real group of losers? We'll have to keep tuning into "It: Welcome to Derry" as it continues on HBO Max to find out.