Welcome to Derry Creator Says Finale Fog Isn’t The Mist — Then Explains the Connection

Eight episodes in, It: Welcome to Derry has been one big scavenger hunt for Stephen King diehards. Deep-cut book references, winks at Carrie and The Shawshank Redemption, the whole thing. But the finale went for a bigger swing: the military drags It out of its 27-year nap, a heavy fog rolls into town, and everyone watching goes, hang on... is this The Mist?

About that fog

Short answer: no. Longer answer: kind of, but not really, which is exactly how Andy Muschietti explained it after the finale. The fog is not meant to be a direct nod to King’s 1980 story The Mist (you know, the one where David Drayton and a bunch of townsfolk hide from monstrosities in a supermarket). But Muschietti says it is connected at a cosmic level.

'Of course, in The Mist, they say that the mist comes from the Todash Field, the same interdimensional plane that It is from... So it's unrelated, but it's also related,' he told Variety.

If that sounds like a lore pretzel, here’s the clean version: the show’s fog isn’t The Mist, but it does tie into the same multiversal space King uses across stories. Muschietti wanted a visual way to show the Dead Lights radiating outward. He actually planted it earlier: when the meteor hits Derry in episode 4, we see three Dead Lights circling a fog bank. That fog wasn’t just a vibe; it was groundwork for the finale’s idea that this thing expands.

So what's next?

Season 2 hasn't been officially ordered yet, but it feels like a formality at this point. Muschietti laid out a three-season plan and even tossed in specifics for the next chapter, which goes further back in time and still manages to loop in familiar faces.

• Planned as part of a three-season arc
• Set in Derry during the Depression
• New characters alongside returning ones
• Some characters from season 1 will be back as younger versions

It: Welcome to Derry is streaming now on HBO Max.