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Pennywise's impact on the children of Welcome to Derry molds them throughout their adult lives, transforming them into the exact individuals who keep the community's cycle of hatred alive. It preys most easily on kids from broken households — children who often mature to repeat the same patterns 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 Derry, remains the sole member who never fully falls under Pennywise's sway.

The Hanlon Family's Distinctive Resistance

In the fourth installment of the series, Leroy Hanlon finally becomes increasingly conscious of the supernatural forces surrounding the community, especially when the entity starts haunting his child, Will Hanlon, during their fishing trip. The Hanlon clan consists of a small number of grown-ups who are cognizant that things are not right with the town, 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 episode 3. Subsequently, he spots one of Pennywise's signature inflated orbs outside his residence. This gift, coupled with his failure to feel fear, combined with the foundation of his family, may be why he's capable of perceiving Pennywise's hauntings. However, consider if that shining is generational, and one of the reasons Mike is among the few individuals in Derry who resisted succumbing to its cruelty?

Will is part of the group of children at his educational institution being tormented by Pennywise. All his school friends come from dysfunctional families, with parents who refuse to accept they're being targeted. The reason he is being pursued is due to the viciousness of the town, paired with his likely receptiveness to shine, which makes him susceptible. The Hanlons are fundamentally strangers in the town during the early sixties, which lends itself towards the household feeling anomalies exist about the town from the onset. They also have a good foundation that remains unbroken, unlike the folks who come from the area, with relationships that have decayed internally.

Backstory Connections

Based on the It novel, we know the juvenile Will will end up at the Black Spot, where the psychic will rescue him from a blaze that the local KKK members of Derry will cause. In the recent movie, we observe that Will has a son named Mike and that the father ultimately dies in a fire, with his father outliving his own child and taking his grandson in. The public account in the film is that Mike's parents were on drugs, but given our current view of Will in Welcome to Derry, that's hard to believe. Maybe the shy youth, once he became an adult, leaned into drink to free himself of the hauntings, or perhaps the rotten town affected him initially, with the KKK eventually finishing the job it began years ago. Be it via the fear of Pennywise or through the malice of the community, instigated by Pennywise, the creature in the end achieves the final victory on him.

Leroy's Transformation

These occurrences would explain how the elder Hanlon changes so radically from what we see in It: Chapter 1 and the prequel. In his older age, Leroy seems resentful and much stricter with his parenting. Because he survived his own son, it's understandable to see such a drastic change. Nonetheless, his words carry more weight now that we know he's witnessed the clown's activities and the effects they wrought upon his child. In the opening scene of It, we observe the boy hesitate to use a bolt gun on a sheep at the family property. His grandfather reprimands him for delaying and offers an analogy that results in a survival-of-the-fittest situation.

“There are two places you can be in this world. You can be in the open like we are, or you can be in there,” he states as he points to the sheep. “You waste time hemming and hawing, and another is going to make that choice. But you won't know it until you feel that projectile between your eyes.”

Looking back, this could represent a piece of prediction, something he regrets not imparting to his own son. Maybe he wishes he had acted differently in his youth, but for some reason, he couldn't resist the sickening allure of the town.