IT: Welcome to Derry's Chris Chalk on Dick Hallorann's The Shining Transformation - 'He's Nowhere Near That Guy'

Spoilers travel for IT: Welcome to Derry Season 1.

One of the standout characters of HBO's IT prequel bid Welcome to Derry has without a uncertainty been Dick Hallorann, arsenic portrayed by histrion Chris Chalk (Gotham, Perry Mason). Of course, the absorbing happening astir Dick is that Stephen King fans cognize he'll yet go the caput cook astatine the Overlook Hotel, wherever he'll person a fateful run-in with the Torrance household successful The Shining.

But since Welcome to Derry Season 1 is acceptable successful 1962, and acold from the Overlook, this Dick Hallorann is conscionable a young Air Force Airman who is inactive struggling with his quality to "shine." It's a traumatic, debilitating powerfulness that helium has, which makes this mentation of Dick rather antithetic from the jolly, benevolent mentation Scatman Crothers played successful Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film.

"I deliberation what Dick wants is conscionable love, conscionable similar everybody else," Chalk told maine erstwhile I asked astir however the quality volition yet germinate into the mentation of him successful The Shining. "And I deliberation helium wonders if helium tin person emotion if helium tin work everybody's mind, and who would judge him if they knew who helium truly was? ... And past erstwhile we spot him unsocial successful The Shining. It didn't work."

For Chalk, Dick's shining powers are "a big-time curse" due to the fact that "he's perpetually wanting emotion and cannot get it, due to the fact that if I tin work your mind, I'm going to cheat. You cognize what I mean? I'm going to fig retired who you truly are."

He sees dormant people.

That said, and Dick's being unsocial successful The Shining notwithstanding, Chalk does spot his quality arsenic taking the archetypal steps to a amended beingness successful Welcome to Derry -- 1 wherever helium tin woody with his powers.

"To me, Welcome to Derry, the past occurrence is the opening of the transformation," helium says. "He's obscurity adjacent that feline [in The Shining], but he's learning that, 'Oh, I tin find connection. People volition similar me. I tin beryllium useful.' Whereas earlier that, it's a one-person amusement with it."

As for Dick's future... oregon rather, the aboriginal of his past, Chalk's not ruling retired playing the quality again. While the program is for Welcome to Derry to span 3 seasons, it's presently unclear wherever it volition each beryllium connected the timeline. But Mike Flanagan, who wrote and directed The Shining movie sequel Doctor Sleep, and which featured Carl Lumbly arsenic Dick, was astatine 1 clip moving connected a imaginable prequel that would've focused connected the character. Chalk is each successful if somethign similar that ever comes to be.

"Oh, man," laughs the actor. "I'm trying to initiate [a spin-off]! What are you talking about? Yeah. I would emotion it. ... There's truthful overmuch storytelling near to beryllium told astir Dick Hallorann, and we cognize wherever we're going. Because imagine, one, helium could spell to New Orleans. That's a thing. He could conscionable spell consecutive to the Overlook and then, you cognize the representation with each the radical [from the extremity of The Shining]? Where'd they go? And that could beryllium the series. The death-of-the-week benignant of thing. Who were the twins? Were they live erstwhile helium got there? You cognize what I mean?

"That's the quality of Stephen King. He gave you each this worldly and says, 'Go play, now.' So let's marque this show!"