‘It: Welcome to Derry’: Every Easter Egg & Hidden Reference in the Opening Sequence
It: Welcome to Derry taps into Stephen King‘s larger Pennywise mythology, revisiting the era before the Losers’ Club forced the shapeshifting entity back into the depths below. This is Pennywise at full strength, feeding on Derry’s children long before anyone knew how to fight back.
The series not only explores the origin and history of the child-devouring clown, but it also pulls in references from King’s It novel, the 1990 miniseries, and the recent film adaptations. And the nods aren’t limited to the narrative; even the opening credits are packed with visual Easter eggs and hidden references that foreshadow what’s coming.
Below is a breakdown of every reference and callback to Pennywise lore we spotted in the credits — without spoiling anything from the actual show. See how of these winks many you caught.
It: Welcome to Derry, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO & HBO Max
Keene's Drug Store
In Derry, Maine, Norbert Keene is the town’s local pharmacist, operating the Center Street Drug Store for decades. Mr. Keene is the one who dispenses Loser Club Member Eddie Kaspbrak’s asthma inhaler, which Eddie believes is lifesaving medication. Keene is the first adult to hint that Eddie’s whole “fragile health” is a lie, saying outright that Eddie isn’t actually sick and could be a normal kid if his mother would let him.
"Hiya, Georgie"
Georgie wasn’t the first child Pennywise tempted into the sewers with promises of fun. In the credits, we glimpse a young girl in a nearly identical scenario, her curiosity pulling her toward the clown’s trap. It’s a method Pennywise has relied on for generations, a time-tested lure that always seems to work on children who don’t know to be afraid.
The Barrens
The Barrens sit near the Kenduskeag Stream, downstream from the Kitchener Ironworks, the Derry Standpipe, and the town’s sewer runoff. Before the Losers, the Barrens were already known as a hangout for local boys sneaking cigarettes, building forts, a bit of swimming, and staying away from adults. Like most of Derry, the Barrens have an unspoken wrongness to it, as animals go quiet, “sounds carry strangely,” and kids feel watched. In the book, Beverly Marsh recalls that the place always had a “feeling like something old was sleeping under it.”
Juniper Hill Asylum
An infamous asylum of the Stephen King universe, whose inmates include It‘s Henry Bowers, Needful Thing‘s Nettie Cobb, Gerald’s Game‘s Raymond “Space Cowboy” Joubert, Insomnia‘s Charlie Pickering, and Emily Sidley from the short story “Suffer the Little Children” in the book Nightmares & Dreamscapes.
The Neibolt House
Also known as the Well House, 29 Neibolt Street is where It resides. Audiences first saw it as a rotting, abandoned shell, but in the Welcome to Derry credits, it briefly appears in its prime as a charming Victorian home with something lurking inside. Once an ordinary residence, its location directly above the heart of Derry’s sewer system, Pennywise’s true lair, makes it the most dangerous place in town.
A family lived there before fleeing, leaving the house to decay and turn into a “wino hangout.” It later becomes the site of the Losers Club’s first major clash with Pennywise and the entry point they use to descend into the sewers below.
Feeding Time for Pennywise the Clown
The shapeshifting entity known as Pennywise appears several times in the opening sequence. It takes the form of a Lovecraftian horror in the Barrens scene, luring a boy with candy, and is hinted at as a creature lurking in the sewers as a young girl peers in, echoing Georgie’s fate. Here, Pennywise’s gloved hand is seen operating a projector, flashing images of nuclear destruction to terrify a child, a reminder of how It “flavors the meat” with fear before feeding.
The Bradley Gang Shootout
The Bradley Gang was a group of Depression-era criminals who came through Derry in the late 1920s. A mob of townspeople, encouraged by a kind of shared hysteria, armed themselves and ambushed the gang in broad daylight, shooting them to death in the street. The killings were never prosecuted.
There are reports of a clown-like figure being present in the mob, feeding the violence. Pennywise was likely there, causing the violence and chaos. The scene reinforces a key theme that Pennywise doesn’t always kill, but sometimes It inspires humans to do the killing for It.
The Bowers Family
In the credits, the Bowers family name appears on a building. The Bowers family is a troubled clan that appears in Derry. While Henry was a bully for the Loser Club, father Oscar “Butch” Bowers was an abusive father and a racist police officer, which his father, also named Butch (briefly mentioned in Mike Hanlon’s research) was also violent, suggesting a family line of brutality.
The Kitchener Ironworks
The Kitchener Ironworks is one of the largest tragedies linked to Pennywise’s feeding cycle. On Easter Sunday, 1906, the factory held a children’s Easter egg hunt on its property. During the event, a boiler exploded violently, destroying much of the building and killing 102 people — 88 children and 14 adults. The tragedy is widely remembered as one of the worst in town history, but like all horrors in Derry, it eventually fades from public conversation.
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