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The clown's impact on the children of Welcome to Derry molds them long into adulthood, transforming them into the exact individuals who perpetuate the community's cycle of hatred alive. The creature finds easy targets on children from broken households — children who frequently grow up to repeat the identical behaviors as their guardians. However, the Hanlon household stands apart as one of the few family unit that remains intact, which may explain why Mike Hanlon, even after choosing to stay in the town, remains the only Loser who doesn't completely succumb under Pennywise's sway.

Hanlon Household's Distinctive Resilience

In the fourth installment of Welcome to Derry, Leroy Hanlon finally becomes more aware of the paranormal entities enveloping the community, particularly when It starts haunting his child, Will, during their fishing trip. The Hanlon family comprises a small number of adults who are cognizant that something is amiss with the municipality, notably Leroy, who was revealed to be sensitive to psychic abilities when he was able to detect a fellow psychic's employment of it in the third episode. Later, Leroy spots one of Pennywise's signature balloons outside his house. This gift, alongside his failure to experience terror, combined with the foundation of his household, may be why he's able to see Pennywise's hauntings. But what if that shining is generational, and a key factor Mike Hanlon is among the few individuals in the town who resisted succumbing to the town's malevolence?

Will is a member of the collective of children at his educational institution being terrorized by the clown. His classmates come from broken homes, with parents who refuse to accept they're being haunted. The reason Will is being haunted is due to the viciousness of the community, combined with his likely receptiveness to psychic abilities, which renders him vulnerable. The Hanlons are fundamentally strangers in Derry during the early sixties, which lends itself towards the household feeling anomalies exist about the town from the beginning. They also have a good foundation that remains unbroken, in contrast to the folks who originate in the area, with bonds that have decayed internally.

Historical Context

Drawing from the It novel, we understand the juvenile Will will find himself at the infamous nightclub, where the psychic will rescue him from a blaze that the town bigots of Derry will ignite. In the recent film, we see that he has a son named Mike and that Will ultimately dies in a configration, with Leroy surviving his own child and taking his grandson in. The official story in the film is that the parents were on drugs, but now that we see Will in Welcome to Derry, that's difficult to accept. Maybe the shy boy, once he became an adult, turned to drink to rid himself of the torments, or perhaps the rotten town affected him initially, with the hate group eventually completing the job it started years ago. Whether through the fear of the entity or through the malice of the town, instigated by Pennywise, It eventually achieves the last laugh on him.

The Father's Evolution

This chain of events would clarify how the elder Hanlon changes so drastically from what we witness in the first film and the prequel. In his older age, he appears bitter and much harsher with his discipline. Since he survived his own offspring, it's comprehensible to observe such a profound shift. However, his words hold greater significance since we are aware he's seen the clown's activities and the effects they wrought upon his child. In the initial sequence of It, we observe the boy pause to use a bolt gun on a sheep at Leroy's farm. Leroy chastises him for delaying and offers an analogy that leads to a kill-or-be-killed scenario.

“You have two options you can be in this world. You can be out here like us, or you can be in there,” Leroy says as he points to the creature. “You dawdle hemming and hawing, and someone is going to decide for you. But you will be unaware it until you feel that projectile between your eyes.”

In hindsight, this could be a bit of prediction, something he regrets not imparting to his own son. Maybe he wishes he had done something in his youth, but for some reason, he was unable to avoid the repellent allure of Derry.