Stephen King Used Derry In One Of His Stories Years Before IT

Warner Bros.

The town of Derry, Maine, is synonymous with Stephen King's "IT," and for good reason. This coulrophobia-inducing terror tome is one of King's best books, and the reason why so many readers are spooked by Pennywise the Clown and his supernatural powers. However, "IT" isn't the first novel to feature the cursed town, as King debuted it in a short story published in 1981's "A Fantasy Reader: The Seventh World Fantasy Convention Book" anthology.

Technically, though, Derry's first appearance is canonical to his 1986 novel about the aforementioned child-tormenting, sewer-dwelling shapeshifting entity. King's story, "The Bird and the Album" (later renamed "The Album"), ultimately became the 14th chapter of "IT." The author was working on his novel at the time the anthology was released, but it gave readers a taste of what was to come years later.

That said, there are some differences between "IT" and the story published in the anthology that predates it. Both iterations chronicle the experiences of an adult Mike Hanlon, who opens a refrigerator only to be tormented by the severed head of a young Stanley Uris (aka Pennywise playing tricks). However, the "A Fantasy Reader" version sees Stan's head antagonize Mike, a Black man, with racial slurs, which aren't present in the novel.

This story collection marked the wider world's first introduction to Derry on the page, and it has since become an important part of the Stephen King universe. In fact, the author referenced Derry in other stories that haunted readers long before "IT" came along.

HBO

Some movie fans might have been surprised to see Derry appear in Edgar Wright's "The Running Man" adaptation, but it makes sense. You see, Derry pops up in the literary version of the author's dystopian story, as protagonist Ben Richards heads there to catch a flight. Sadly, he doesn't bump into Pennywise along the way, but he has other problems to contend with at the time.

After "The Running Man," King snuck Derry cameos and/or mentions of the town into "The Body," "Pet Sematary," and some short stories in the "Skeleton Crew" collection. Given that "A Fantasy Reader: The Seventh World Fantasy Convention Book" is also very obscure (word on the street is that only 1,000 printed copies exist), the majority of King's millions of readers probably associate Derry's debut with "The Running Man."

This horrific town is one of the many pockets King's stories have routinely visited in his sprawling, interconnected Multiverse, and he has gotten a lot of mileage out of it since 1981. What's more, the setting has informed some great movies and TV shows, most recently HBO's "Welcome to Derry," which serves as a prequel to the "IT" movies.