The Hidden Meanings In IT: Welcome To Derry's Opening Credits

"It: Welcome to Derry" is an eerie, chilling prequel that takes us to Derry, Maine, decades before Stephen King's Losers Club was even born. In the show's second episode, "The Thing in the Dark," even its opening credits are loaded with hidden meaning. If you want a complete rundown of every single reference the credits make, click the video above. It includes scenes which foreshadow and recall many a local tragedy, ultimately turning the whole opening package into a loving, tightly-packed tribute to King's world. 

The most prominent image in the first few opening minutes is that of Paul Bunyan. "It" fans will recognize the statue as the same one that will one day chase after Richie Tozier (Finn Wolfhard), but in the credits, the tourist attraction is in the early process of being built. It doesn't take long for the montage to focus on an image of a little girl peering down a storm drain with a missing child flyer posted nearby — bad news for her and good news for Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård), who tends to grab a lot of his victims this way. Step by step, these scenes clue you in to the fact that the peaceful, cheerful suburban façade of Derry is just that — window dressing for the sinister reality lying at the town's beating heart.

After a quick spin through Juniper Hill — an asylum that appears in multiple Stephen King works, including the "It" novel and all its adaptations — the credits take the viewer to 29 Neibolt Street, the sunflower-laden property that serves as a hub to Pennywise's underground lair. Images of nuclear terror soon give way to something more pedestrian — scenes of the Bradley Gang Massacre, another piece of Derry history that naturally took place during the 1930s, when the town turned on two bank robbing brothers. Look out for a sign that bears the word Bowers — every "It" fan worth their salt knows about Henry Bowers, and "Welcome to Derry" features a Bowers relative, Clint, the town's chief of police back in 1962. 

One last eerie image fills the screen during the credits: Kitchener Ironworks, with an Easter Bunny burning over it. Back in 1908, the factory exploded in an undetermined fashion in the middle of an easter egg hunt. 102 people pass away in the tragedy, the majority of them children — as poor Ben Hanscom (Jeremy Ray Taylor) learns in "It" while researching this event at the local library, where he's attacked by a smoking, headless boy holding easter eggs. One last tip: Keep you eyes peeled for Pennywise himself — he's always lurking around every corner, even in these humble, seemingly innocuous surroundings. Did you spy any of these references in the show's opening credits, and are you looking to learn more about them? If so, watch our video above.