With the pilot episode of Joe Hill's NOS4A2 debuting at South by Southwest, fans got a look at what they can expect when the horror series hits AMC later this year.
In some fun trivia, it looks like showrunner Jami O'Brien is pulling a map out of Hill's book, which reminds fans of his father, the Master of Horror, Stephen King. Just as King loves to place all his stories in one large world, Hill did the same with NOS4A2.
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The world of AMC's NOS4A2 exists in the same, larger world as Stephen King's It and Joe Hill's Locke & Key. Of course, if NOS4A2 exists in the same world as It, the movie also shares the same world as all of King's stories, as Derry is a neighboring town of Castle Rock and Jerusalem's Lot in King's fictional Maine.
Both the Pennywise Circus and Lovecraft Keyhold are referenced in the NOS4A2 pilot, according to Bloody Disgusting, connecting the show immediately to It and Locke & Key. With both It: Chapter 2 in production for a 2019 theatrical release and Locke & Key coming to Netflix, these are very timely references as well.
Just looking at the novel by Hill, he connects his story to the world of Horns, with villain Charles Manx discussing the Treehouse of the Mind, and Heart-Shaped Box, with mention of Craddock McDermott. When the FBI is tracking a cellphone, they see Lovecraft on the map, which is the town from Locke & Key.
From the world of Stephen King, Shawshank Prison is mentioned and Manx also references the True Knot -- the villains from Doctor Sleep. Hill also added in the Pennywise Circus, which many will know refers to It. There are also Dark Tower references, such as mentioning the gates to Mid-World.
In NOS4A2, both Charles Manx and the hero, Vic McQueen, use hidden roads to get places quickly, pretty much jumping between worlds. In the novel, these roads are charted on a map, which also appears in the debut episode.
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There was also a Q&A with showrunner Jami O'Brien at the SXSW screening, and he assured fans that Season 1 of NOS4A2 was just the start of larger King references. The season will only cover a third of the novel's story, so there is hope that the show is a success and AMC lets the full story play out.
AMC's NOS4A2 stars Zachary Quinto, Ashley Cummings, Olafur Darri Olafsson, Virginia Kull, Jahkara Smith, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. It is scheduled to premiere this summer.