The tale of a group of young friends who join forces to fend off an otherworldly evil, “Stranger Things” was no doubt inspired by IT. But do they exist in the same universe?
The real answer? No, definitely not. The more fun answer? Of course they do!
As far as we can tell, the Twitter account Stranger Facts first presented this theory, inspired by a story Bob (Sean Astin) relays to Will Byers in Season 2. Bob explains to Will that, as a child, he was deathly afraid of a clown that he had encountered. The clown haunted his nightmares growing up, before he finally confronted his biggest fear head on.
Bob’s parents were from Maine, which houses the town of Derry. And Bob grew up in the late ’50s, a time in which (in Stephen King’s novel) Pennywise was active in Derry.
Gasp.
Bob’s parents are from Maine, and he was haunted by an evil clown when he was a kid which would’ve been in the late 50’s #StrangerThings pic.twitter.com/G1SfJiCHRd
— Stranger Facts (@UpsideDownFacts) October 29, 2017
Of course, the biggest connective thread between “Stranger Things” and IT is that both the series and the new film star Finn Wolfhard. Granted, that doesn’t lend any credence whatsoever to the two properties being set within the same fictional universe, but Stranger Facts did also note this fun connection between them…
Finn Wolfhard says the same line in both #StrangerThings and the movie IT pic.twitter.com/70RvYf1AwG
— Stranger Facts (@UpsideDownFacts) October 29, 2017
Speaking with Vulture, “Stranger Things” creators the Duffer Brothers touched upon this fan theory, explaining that Bob’s story was, at the very least, inspired by IT.
“Well, we both have a problem with clowns,” Matt Duffer told the site. “I’ve had it my entire life. I had it when I was really little, so when there were clowns at a party, it was a real problem for me. Then in 1990, we saw the IT mini-series and Tim Curry’s performance as Pennywise really messed me up. Like, it scarred me in a major way. It was one of the first true horror things I had seen, and I had not experienced Stephen King before. That was my first experience with Stephen King, so that was a really huge point in my life. It was two weeks, at least, of no sleep because of that.”
“So yeah, I think [Bob’s clown story] was really me describing something that just freaked me out,” he added. “I didn’t have that experience myself. I just had nightmares like that.”
Bottom line? “Stranger Things” drew a whole lot of inspiration from IT, but that doesn’t mean the two share any real connection… aside from Finn Wolfhard starring in both!
