Fans of Stranger Things spent months chasing a phantom episode, but IT: Welcome to Derry actually delivered one—quietly dropping a standalone Halloween special titled “A Story of Derry” at midnight. While the first season of the prequel series unfolded in the 1960s, two decades before the events of Stephen King's novel, this new installment leaps much further back, to a time before Derry even existed. It's a bold narrative swing that pays off in a big way.
The episode takes us to pre-Colonial America, where the Shokopiwah tribe lives on land that will one day become the cursed town. Here, the ancient entity known as the Galloo is first bound to the earth—but not before it has already sown destruction. The story is told from the perspective of three young warriors—Necani (Kiawentiio), Maneese (Michael Podemski-Bedard), and Kino (Isabel Deroy-Olson)—who set out to hunt the creature. This fresh vantage point is a welcome shift, as the lore was previously filtered through the interrogation of a teenager in Season 1's “The Great Swirling Apparatus of Our Planet's Function.”
That earlier episode introduced the Galloo and the Shokopiwah, but it framed their mythology through a colonial lens—a military officer grilling a Native American youth for information. “A Story of Derry” corrects that by letting the tribe's own oral tradition take center stage. It's a powerful choice that underscores how the Galloo adapts to the fears of each era, often manifesting as the white colonizers who encroach on the land. The episode even hints that the military's attempt to weaponize Native American magic may have awakened the entity in the first place.
One of the episode's most unsettling performances comes from Zahn McClarnon as Mativ, a warrior who initially appears as a wise mentor to the young protagonists. But as the story unfolds, we learn that Mativ has been corrupted by the Galloo, leading him to slaughter his own people. McClarnon's portrayal is chillingly nuanced, showing a man fighting a losing battle against an insidious force. It's a reminder that Derry's curse is cyclical, leaving few survivors to pass on the truth.
The biggest shock, however, is the first live-action appearance of Maturin, the cosmic turtle. For the uninitiated, Maturin might sound like a whimsical creation, but in King's expanded universe, this entity is one of the twelve guardians who hold up the pillars of reality in The Dark Tower series. In the original IT novel, Bill uses a ritual taught by Maturin to banish Pennywise. This episode finally brings that lore to the screen, suggesting that Welcome to Derry is ready to dive deeper into King's weirder mythology.
“A Story of Derry” works both as a crucial piece of backstory and as a standalone thriller. It's a testament to the show's willingness to explore the town's dark history beyond the familiar beats of the novel. For those who want to revisit the Season 1 episode that set this up, our coverage of that surprise drop has you covered. And if you're hungry for more King adaptations, The Stand is climbing the charts once again.
As Welcome to Derry continues to expand its canvas, it's clear that the series is not just a prequel—it's a deep dive into the very soul of Stephen King's most terrifying creation. With Maturin now in play, the possibilities are endless. King's best openings have always promised something sinister, and this episode delivers on that promise in spades.
