In the shadowy corners of Stephen King‘s Derry, where an ancient evil feeds on fear, Mike Hanlon stands as a quiet sentinel. As the only member of the Losers’ Club to remain in their haunted hometown, he shoulders the burden of memory, forever watching for the return of the entity known as It. His deep connection to Derry’s dark history, however, is not just his own; it is a legacy passed down through his family.
The story of Mike Hanlon is profoundly intertwined with the saga of his parents (including mother Jessica Hanlon), his grandfather, and a lineage of resilience in the face of both supernatural and human horrors. The new prequel series, It: Welcome to Derry, promises to pull back the curtain on this very legacy, exploring the roots of the Hanlon family’s fateful ties to the cursed town.
Mike’s role as the group’s historian and watchman feels almost predestined, a torch handed down from previous generations. His father, Will Hanlon, was the first to instill in him a fascination with Derry’s past, piecing together its terrible secrets long before Mike and his friends ever faced a clown in the sewers. The new series dives into the 1960s, a generation before Mike’s own childhood battles, to explore the experiences of his grandfather, Leroy Hanlon, and a young Will.
This exploration reveals that the Hanlon family’s struggles in Derry were twofold, facing not only the shape-shifting monster Pennywise but also the very real-world bigotry of their community, making their story one of incredible courage and endurance.
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The Hanlon Family Legacy
Mike Hanlon’s father, Will Hanlon, is a cornerstone of his son’s character. In Stephen King’s original novel, Will is a thoughtful and loving father who works as a farmer and possesses a deep interest in Derry’s history. He actively cultivates this curiosity in his son through a unique game, leaving Mike handwritten notes that encourage him to explore different parts of town, ensuring the boy connects with his environment despite the racism they face.
Will’s own past is marked by a pivotal, traumatic event: as a young man stationed at the Derry Army Air Corps Base, he was present at the fire at the Black Spot, a club for Black servicemen that was burned down by the racist Legion of White Decency. Will survived the inferno, and his account of seeing a giant bird—an early manifestation of It—carry away one of the attackers, became a crucial piece of the town’s hidden lore that he would later share with Mike.
The fate of Mike’s parents varies across the different adaptations of It, but it is always tragic. In the novel, Will Hanlon dies of cancer when Mike is young. In the 2017 film, this backstory is altered significantly; Mike is portrayed as an orphan who lives with his grandfather. He reveals to the Losers’ Club that his mom and died died in a fire at a house on Harris Avenue, a traumatic memory that It uses against him.
In a later scene, an old photo album shows a picture of his parents, indicating their loss is a core part of his character, even if the details are changed. It: Welcome to Derry is set to expand on this by showing a young Will Hanlon as a boy, confirming he is the son of Leroy and Charlotte Hanlon, and setting the stage for the tragic fate that awaits him.
I hope y’all know this the SAME character. Grandfather to Mike Hanlon
Left – IT (2017) Right – IT: Welcome to Derry#WelcomeToDerry #HBOMax #ITWelcomeToDerry #pennywise pic.twitter.com/JgsHA3GdMk
— sagesurge (@sagesurge) October 31, 2025
The newest character to the Hanlon family saga is Mike’s grandfather, Leroy Hanlon, who was briefly seen in the 2017 film, portrayed by Steven Williams. It: Welcome to Derry brings a younger Leroy to the forefront, played by Jovan Adepo. The series depicts him as an Air Force Major who moves his family to Derry in the 1960s for a top-secret military assignment.
Unlike the novel, where Mike’s father, Will, witnessed the Black Spot fire, the prequel series shifts this key historical event to Leroy’s era, making him a central figure in one of Derry’s darkest chapters. His wife, Charlotte Hanlon, Mike’s grandmother, also joins him in Derry, establishing the family’s roots in a town that is about to reveal its supernatural horrors.
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A Heritage of Watching and Waiting
Mike Hanlon’s own story is a direct continuation of this family heritage. The lessons he learned from his father and the history his grandfather lived through forged him into the watchman of the Losers’ Club. He is the one who remains in Derry, working as the town librarian and keeping a meticulous record of every strange and violent event, waiting for the day It would return.
He is the one who makes the fateful phone calls to his childhood friends, forcing them to honor the promise they made as children. The emotional burden of this vigil is immense; as an adult, he is noted to have aged more dramatically than the others, a visible testament to the weight of living constantly with the knowledge of Derry’s evil.
The journey of the Hanlon family through Derry is a powerful thread in the tapestry of It, representing a battle fought on two fronts. They have confronted the mundane, human evil of racism and the cosmic, shape-shifting terror of Pennywise across generations. Mike Hanlon is not an isolated hero; he is the product of a lineage defined by survival, curiosity, and an unwavering sense of duty. It: Welcome to Derry is poised to enrich this narrative, showing us that the evil in Derry has many faces, and so does the courage of the families who stand against it.
