This character from It: Welcome to Derry which makes the link with The Shining

Dick Hallorann, a name that takes us back years to the Overlook Hotel…

It’s a name that resonates like a sweet memory in the ears of Stephen King fans.

Dick Hallorann is an essential character in Shining. And he is now one of the heroes of This: Welcome to Derrythe prequel series that takes the opportunity to fill in the blanks left by the writer. On the origins of Pennywise, obviously, but on Dick Hallorann too, by the way!

Chris Chalk plays here the telekinetic chef of the Overlook Hotel, still involved in the American army. As early as episode 2, attentive fans had noticed his name. But it’s episode 3 that confirms that it’s more than just a wink. Dick Hallorann deploys his powers in a spectacular sequence, reinventing the character with intensity.

We recall that Hallorann appears for the first time in 1977 in the novel Shiningendowed with psychic powers similar to those of Danny Torrance. He plays a key role in the book (and Kubrick’s film), returns in its sequel Doctor Sleep (2013) and appears briefly in That (1986), in a short flashback. Even Chalk admits in Variety: “I didn’t remember any of that in the book. With 3000 stories, it’s normal to forget some.”

But Chalk’s Dick Hallorann is nothing like previous iterations. In Shiningthe character was often seen as a racial stereotype: “He is literally the black magician of the film, the only black man in the film in fact” Chalk explains. In This: Welcome to Derrythe series avoids this trope, thanks to a “real diversity in the narration, which allows it to disappear,” Chalk points out.

Episode 3 of This: Welcome to Derry reveals that the military base is searching for an ancient weapon or power beneath Derry and that Dick’s abilities are key to locating it. In one memorable sequence, Private Hallorann guides a helicopter from his rear post, enters a trance, and navigates a psychic world where his reality fractures.

“He is physically there, but psychologically absent, immersed in another world,” Chalk explains to describe his powers. To make this dissociation credible, he worked on his breathing and his tremors, drawing inspiration from real mysticism practices…

In this psychic world, Hallorann controls her memories and knows how to navigate. But when these memories are invaded by a dark force, “the world begins to collapse on him,” adds Chalk.

Other nods to the world of Stephen King – such as Shawshank Prison, that of the Escapees (The Shawshank Redemption) – slip in here and there in the series.

This: Welcome to Derry continues every Monday in France on HBO Max.