It: Welcome to Derry Star Taylour Paige Isn’t Buying Charlotte Hanlon’s Season 1 Finale Decision
In the Season 1 finale of It: Welcome to Derry, Charlotte Hanlon makes a last-second about-face — and Taylour Paige isn’t thrilled.
It: Welcome to Derry stuck the landing on its season 1 finale and then immediately threw a curveball: one of its leads, Taylour Paige, says she didn't love where her character ended up. And yeah, I kind of get it.
Spoilers ahead for episode 8.
Where the finale leaves everyone
- Pennywise is pushed back into a 27-year nap, courtesy of Bill Skarsgard doing what he does best.
- Rose, the Grogans, and Dick Hallorann all make plans to get out of Derry.
- The Hanlons decide to stay and take over Rose's farm, even though Leroy had been the loudest voice for leaving not long ago.
Charlotte tells Leroy, in so many words, that if they're going to do foolish missions, they should do them together. The implication is clear: the Hanlons are the new protectors of Derry. It's a bold choice for a family that just barely survived.
Taylour Paige wanted a different ending for Charlotte
In a post-mortem chat with Deadline, Paige was refreshingly blunt about not buying Charlotte's decision to stick around after everything that happened. She pointed to the show's running idea that Derry makes people forget or minimize the horrors around them, but it still didn't track for her.
"I'm not happy with the way this was written, if I'm being honest... There's no f*cking way."
Paige also said she wanted more for Charlotte, Leroy, and their son Will. She understands why the writers might land on a 1962-era reality where a woman settles back into being a homemaker, but she doesn't exactly celebrate it. In her words, having Charlotte just leave would have been considered too radical for the time, and a lot of women stayed in marriages and pushed down their own needs to keep families intact. Period-accurate? Sure. Satisfying? Not really, at least for Paige.
What she did love about playing Charlotte
Paige was all-in on Charlotte's scenes with Will and the thread with Hank Grogan, whom Charlotte supported after he was wrongly accused of the movie theater murders. She said becoming a mother since filming gave her a different lens on those moments — that motherhood can feel like a superpower and a fast track to compassion — and that those beats finally opened up Charlotte's inner life beyond the expected 60s domestic roles.
Will we see Charlotte again?
Probably not. If It: Welcome to Derry gets a season 2, the plan is to jump back another 27 years, which would take the story well before Charlotte's time.
It: Welcome to Derry is streaming now on HBO Max.