Dick Hallorann’s inclusion in Welcome To Derry mustn’t have been a huge surprise for those who have read the book, because his association with The Black Spot and Will Hanlon was mentioned in IT. But I suppose the fact that he would have such a fleshed-out role and he’d be so integral in the fight against Pennywise in the ‘60s must have come as a major shock to book readers and fans of the films alike. He had been brought by the military to Derry to use his “shine” to find the pillars that were being used to keep Pennywise caged. While looking for him in the sewers, Pennywise got ahold of Dick and unlocked the metaphysical box in his mind that he used to keep the dead souls trapped. He didn’t know how to close the lid on it and was this close to dying by suicide. However, that’s when he met Rose, who gave him a concoction made of Maturin root to, first of all, help him locate the dagger made from the meteorite that had brought IT to Earth, and secondly, silence the voices of the dead that were haunting Dick. That gamble paid off, because Dick was not only able to play a part in the final fight against Pennywise, but he also was able to communicate with the dead without losing his mind. However, that didn’t mean that he was going to stay in Derry. He told Leroy that he was off to work at a restaurant in a hotel. Given how the character was in a hotel in The Shining, was he talking about The Overlook Hotel? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
So, I am going to pour water over everybody’s expectations about a potential prequel to The Shining set in the Overlook Hotel by pointing out the fact that Dick wasn’t talking about heading out to the Colorado Rockies. He said that he was going to catch a bus to Boston and then head to London, where his friend owned a hotel. Since this friend of his needed a cook, and Dick was supposedly proficient at whipping up a meal, he accepted the job. On top of that, being in London would mean that he would be as far away as possible from Derry. Leroy was glad to learn about that, and he told Dick that if he ran into any problems over there, he shouldn’t hesitate before giving Leroy a call. That was heartwarming to see, because their whole relationship had started on a very sour note. To see them bonding over the course of the show, fighting shoulder to shoulder against Pennywise, and then hugging it out before bidding each other farewell felt great. But coming back to the topic of the spin-off, are we getting one? Based on reactions on the internet, Dick is a big hit. People, including me, have really liked the character, especially because of Chris Chalk’s amazing performance, and I think that there’s a demand to see more of him. If Warner Brothers and HBO take that into consideration, then maybe they’ll allow Andy Muschietti or someone else to get the ball rolling on a spin-off centered around Hallorann.
Okay, now I am about to put on my tin-foil hat and talk about some legal stuff in order to gauge the chances of a Hallorann spin-off. So, all the way back in 2020, Mike Flanagan had revealed that he was planning to make a spin-off centered around Dick. The story would start off with Carl Lumbly’s version of Hallorann and then flashback to a time in his youth when he started to experience the shine, how that affected his relationship with his grandparents, especially his grandmother, and more. Eventually, he’d find his way to the Overlook Hotel, where he’d come across the Torrances, supposedly meet his end, and then go on to teach Danny how to use his powers as a ghost. Now, Doctor Sleep, despite being an amazing film, failed to meet the box-office expectations of Warner Brothers, and hence, the Hallorann spin-off idea was scrapped. However, thanks to IT: Welcome to Derry, Hallorann is here as a young guy, and we’ve seen glimpses of his past through his run-ins with Pennywise. Do you know who’s back on the Warner Brothers lot too? That’s right, Mike Flanagan, because he’s the writer for the upcoming DCU film, Clayface. So, yeah, if this show ends up being successful enough for the producers to greenlight a Hallorann-centric spin-off, Flanagan, or at least his ideas, might be used to make a show. That said, there’s a big Netflix-shaped issue standing in the way, which might ruin the chances of everything related to the world that Muschietti and his team have created.
Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that Netflix has bought Warner Brothers. I don’t know the exact details of the purchase or if it has actually been finalized, because I heard that Paramount is doing some kind of a “hostile takeover” of Warner Brothers. For now, let’s just assume that Warner Brothers is in Netflix’s clutches. Now, as far as I know, Flanagan parted on really bad terms with Netflix. So, if Netflix has the last say on whether or not Flanagan or his ideas should be used for a Hallorann-centric spin-off, then I don’t think that it’s happening. In fact, based on the way Netflix is handling things, I don’t know if further seasons of Welcome to Derry will happen at all. Therefore, the most optimistic scenario is that Netflix will allow Warner Brothers and HBO to keep making more seasons of Welcome to Derry and also let Flanagan showrun the Hallorann spin-off. The bittersweet option is that more seasons of Welcome to Derry will happen, but HBO has to come up with a showrunner who isn’t Flanagan to make the Hallorann series. And the worst-case scenario is that this is the last we are going to see of any of these characters, and Netflix will cancel anything that’s not already in production. Apologies for highlighting the bleakness of the current state of the entertainment industry; it is what it is. Sometimes reality does make you wonder if we are better off than fictional hellscapes like Derry or not.
If, by some goddamn miracle, the Dick Hallorann spin-off, starring Chris Chalk, gets greenlit, what can we expect to see? Building off of Flanagan’s idea, I think it should be divided into two timelines: one will be set in the past, where we’ll get to learn about Hallorann’s childhood and his work in the army, and the other will be set in the present, as in the ‘70s, where we’ll see Hallorann making his way through the hospitality industry. I think every season of Hallorann’s show should be set in a different haunted hotel. It could be set in the murder mystery subgenre, where he’ll need to use his powers to see and communicate with the dead to solve whatever issue is plaguing the hotel that he’s working at. Maybe we’ll get a Leroy cameo in there somewhere. Given how 1408 is one of my favorite films of all time, I’d love for Dick to visit The Dolphin. They can save The Overlook for the final season, with the series signing off with the arrival of the Torrances. There’s some confusion regarding which version of the character Chalk is playing. During a Reddit AMA, Barbara Muschietti said that Chalk’s version is the same one played by Lumbly and Scatman Crothers (from Stanley Kubrick’s film), which means that Hallorann will die at the hands of Jack. However, I feel that that’s a lie because, of course, the showrunners don’t want to reveal the true fate of this version of Hallorann. They probably want people to believe that that’s the fate he’ll get so that they can surprise us by carving a different path for him, which is possibly similar to that in King’s book. Either way, if a Hallorann spin-off gets off the ground, it’s going to have my full support. What about you? Let me know in the comments section below.
