RUMOUR: Carrie and IT: Welcome to Derry are the same world – if true, this is MASSIVE news

I reported a while back that IT: Welcome to Derry got a renewal for a second season, and we also know that a new Carrie series, left, is only a few weeks away, and both of these shows are based on the work of Stephen King.

And now we have an interesting rumour doing the rounds that the two shows, despite Welcome to Derry being HBO and Carrie being Amazon, are set in the same universe. The rumour seems to have started with scooper Beyond Reporter (below).

Now, this is big news, if true.

So firstly, yes, based on Stephen King’s work, these stories are, by definition, set in the same world, but the fact is that, outside of the books, the myriad of King movie and TV adaptations in the past have not been set in the same world.

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Mike Flanagan talks drawing closer to The Dark Tower series happening

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However, that changed somewhat back in 2019 with the release of Doctor Sleep starring Ewan McGregor. This was actually a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s iconic horror classic The Shining, with both movies (loosely in The Shining’s case) being based on King’s novels of the same name.

Doctor Sleep was directed by Mike Flanagan, the man behind this new Carrie series and the man who has also directed King adaptations The Life of Chuck and Gerald’s Game.

So what does this all mean?

Well, if IT: Welcome to Derry (and by default IT Chapters 1 and 2) and Carrie ARE set in the same universe – if we think of King’s books as the prime universe and all the adaptations until now as part of a multiverse – then this is a secondary universe of joined-up stories set in King’s multiverse. But more interestingly, if they are the same universe, does this mean Doctor Sleep is? Because if so, then so is The Shining.

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Amazon has started filming its Dark Tower series and Michael Rooker has joined the cast

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So, add to all this the fact that Flanagan has been trying for years to get King’s magnum opus, The Dark Tower, made into a TV series and movies, and then it looks like Flanagan might be, in a sneaky way, trying to pave a road to The Dark Tower, giving fans an interconnected world similar to the one King himself created.

You see, in The Dark Tower series, a massive Tower stands at the centre of all worlds and realities and holds back the darkness and the only thing that can destroy that tower are the Breakers, and the Breakers are kids with a gift called the Shine… like Danny Torrance in The Shining and Doctor Sleep and Carrie White in Carrie. On top of this, the darkness the Tower stands against is made of Todash Space, a place where monsters hide and haunt, terrible things, terrible things like Pennywise.

Yes, IT, Doctor Sleep, The Shining and even Carrie are all integral parts of The Dark Tower universe and it looks like Flanagan and King are building another secondary universe outside of the novels.

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WATCH: Teaser trailer announces IT: Welcome to Derry season 2

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A King-on-screen universe was attempted before when JJ Abrams and Hulu released Castle Rock in 2018 and 2019, which drew from the massive lore and mythology of King’s world, much of which takes place in the town of Castle Rock in Maine, and brought characters from many of his stories together – interestingly, it starred Bill Skarsgård, who went on to play Pennywise in the IT movies and Welcome to Derry.

Sadly, Castle Rock didn’t hit the mark, but I have always believed that someone should take King’s stories and make an interconnected universe on the big and small screen, and I actually thought that if anyone could do it, it was Mike Flanagan.

It’s starting to look like maybe that’s exactly what’s happening.

All things follow the Beam, indeed…

Carrie takes place in the same universe as IT: Welcome to Derry. pic.twitter.com/pK1eNG2R4w

— Beyond Reporter (@Beyondreporter1) September 9, 2026

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