Stephen King’s IT Meets Time Travel In Netflix’s 26-Episode Sci-Fi Masterpiece
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Stephen King has dabbled with sci-fi in quite a few books and even used time travel as a narrative device in novels like 11/22/63. However, when it comes to one of his most popular works, IT, the author primarily focuses on the terrors of losing childhood innocence and facing a cosmic threat like Pennywise. Interestingly, one Netflix sci-fi show borrows IT's themes and setting and gives it a time travel twist.
The Netflix show in question, Dark, is still touted as one of the greatest sci-fi series of our time. When Dark first premiered on Netflix, it drew comparisons to Stranger Things because of its similar small-town setting and early missing child mystery. Even its focus on a group of young characters caught in a series of supernatural events reminded many of Stranger Things.
As Dark progressed, though, it turned into a harrowing and nihilistic exploration of time, fate, grief, and cyclical human suffering. While it never became as big of a hit as Stranger Things, it garnered a loyal following, allowing it to fully conclude its run with three seasons. A closer look at Dark also reveals how it is very similar to Stephen King's IT, and its similarities with the King story are largely intentional.
Netflix’s Dark Was Partly Inspired By Stephen King's IT
As Dark's creators, Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, have previously revealed (via Dazed Digital), Twin Peaks and Stephen King's IT were major influences on Dark. The show's similarities with IT also seem quite evident if one takes a look at its central town. Much like Derry in IT, the fictional town of Winden initially seems like a quaint and harmless setting.
However, the story begins when children suddenly start going missing. As the investigation surrounding the missing children unfolds, the hidden secrets of the town's adults begin to surface while an ancient unseen force seemingly corrupts the town. The overarching "force" in Dark is not as tangible as Pennywise from IT.
Instead, Dark attempts to create a monster out of time travel itself by portraying how it skews and distorts one's reality. While Stephen King's IT becomes a story about good vs. evil despite its cosmic undertones, Dark unfolds as a battle between free will and determinism where its characters fight their own choices and past/future selves.
Similar to Stephen King's IT, Netflix's Dark also adopts a multi-generational structure. The multi-generational timeline in Dark, however, becomes increasingly complex as different eras get intertwined in ways that completely shatter the linear rules of cause-and-effect storytelling. Even Dark's tone and mood are reminiscent of the 1980s nostalgia and dread that drives Stephen King's IT.
Interestingly, It: Welcome To Derry Will Be More Like Dark In Season 2
Towards It: Welcome to Derry season 1's ending, it was established that Pennywise exists outside humanity's linear perception of time. The past, the present, and the future are all the same for him. This twist in the Stephen King show allows it to embrace Dark's time travel elements in season 2 and become more "sci-fi" than its source material.
Reports (via Nexus Point News) reveal that Dark's creators, Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, have joined It: Welcome to Derry's writing room. This seems to be a major hint that the Stephen King adaptation on HBO is all set to go all-in with its sci-fi elements and embrace time travel as a narrative device in season 2.
Like Netflix's Dark, it might even intertwine multiple timelines to show how Pennywise's terrors transcend humanity's limited perception of time. Similar to Dark, It: Welcome to Derry is also expected to have a three-season arc, with each installment focusing on a different 27-year cycle of Pennywise's terrors from the past.
Considering these intriguing developments, it seems fair to describe HBO's It: Welcome to Derry as "Stephen King's IT meets Netflix's Dark."
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Dark
- Release Date
- 2017 - 2020-00-00
- Network
- Netflix
-
Louis Hofmann
Jonas Kahnwald
-
Lisa Vicari
Martha Nielsen
Dark is a German science fiction thriller focusing on four families in a small town impacted by the disappearance of a child. As they search for answers, they uncover a web of interconnected secrets, revealing complex temporal and familial relationships spanning multiple generations.
- Directors
- Baran bo Odar
- Writers
- Marc O. Seng, Martin Behnke, Ronny Schalk
- Main Genre
- Crime
- Creator(s)
- Baran bo Odar, Jantje Friese
- Executive Producer(s)
- Baran bo Odar, Jantje Friese, Max Wiedemann, Quirin Berg, Kelly Luegenbiehl, Justyna Müsch, Erik Barmack
- Seasons
- 3
-
It: Welcome to Derry
7/10
- Release Date
- October 26, 2025
- Network
- HBO
-
Charlotte Hanlon
-
Jovan Adepo
Leroy Hanlon
It: Welcome to Derry serves as a prequel to the 2017 film It, exploring the sinister history of Derry, Maine. Set in 1962, the series follows a family that relocates to the town amidst unsettling occurrences and the mysterious disappearance of a young boy.
- Directors
- Andy Muschietti
- Writers
- Jason Fuchs, Stephen King, Austin Guzman
- Main Genre
- Horror
- Creator(s)
- Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, Jason Fuchs
- Executive Producer(s)
- Andy Muschietti, Bárbara Muschietti, Bill Skarsgård, Brad Kane, Dan Lin, Jason Fuchs, Roy Lee, David Coatsworth, Shelley Meals
- Seasons
- 1
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