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Pennywise's influence on the young residents of the Derry series molds them long into adulthood, transforming them into the exact individuals who keep the town's cycle of animosity ongoing. The creature finds easy targets on children from fractured homes — children who often mature to replicate the identical behaviors as their guardians. However, the Hanlon household stands apart as a rare example of a households that remains intact, which may explain why Mike, even after choosing to stay in Derry, remains the sole member who never fully falls under Pennywise's sway.

The Hanlon Family's Distinctive Resilience

In the fourth installment of the series, Leroy finally becomes increasingly conscious of the supernatural forces enveloping the neighborhood, particularly when the entity starts haunting his son, Will Hanlon, during their angling excursion. The Hanlon clan consists of some of the few grown-ups who are aware that things are not right with the municipality, notably Leroy, who was shown to be receptive to psychic abilities when he was capable of sensing a fellow psychic's employment of it in the third episode. Subsequently, he spots one of the clown's trademark balloons outside his house. This gift, coupled with his inability to experience terror, along with the foundation of his family, could be why he's able to see the entity's manifestations. But what if that shining is hereditary, and one of the reasons Mike is one of the only adults in Derry who didn't lose themselves to its cruelty?

The boy is a member of the group of kids at his educational institution being tormented by Pennywise. His classmates come from broken homes, with caregivers who don't believe they're being targeted. The reason he is being haunted is due to the cruelty of the community, combined with his potential sensitivity to shine, which makes him susceptible. This family are fundamentally strangers in the town during the early sixties, which lends itself towards the family sensing anomalies exist about the locality from the beginning. Additionally, they possess a good foundation that remains unbroken, unlike the folks who come from the town, with relationships 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 local KKK members of Derry will ignite. In the recent film, we observe that he has a son named Mike and that the father ultimately dies in a fire, with his father surviving his own child and taking his grandson in. The official story in the film is that the parents were on substances, but now that we see him in Welcome to Derry, that's hard to believe. Maybe the shy youth, once he became an adult, turned to alcohol to free himself of the hauntings, or perhaps the rotten environment affected him first, with the hate group eventually completing the task it started long before. Be it via the fear of the entity or via the cruelty of the community, instigated by It, the creature in the end achieves the last laugh on Will.

The Father's Evolution

This chain of events would clarify how the elder Hanlon transforms so drastically from what we see in It: Chapter 1 and the prequel. In his later years, he appears bitter and much harsher with his discipline. Because he outlived his own son, it's comprehensible to see such a drastic change. Nonetheless, his words hold greater significance now that we know he's seen Pennywise's hauntings and the effects they wrought upon his son. In the initial sequence of It, we see Mike pause to use a stunning device on a animal at Leroy's farm. His grandfather chastises him for hesitating and offers an metaphor that leads to a kill-or-be-killed situation.

“You have two options you can be in this existence. You can be in the open like us, or you can be in there,” he states as he points to the creature. “You waste time hemming and hawing, and another is going to decide for you. Except you won't know it until you experience that projectile in your head.”

Looking back, this could be a bit of prediction, a lesson he regrets not imparting to his own child. Perhaps he desires he had acted differently in his past, but for some reason, he was unable to avoid the sickening attraction of Derry.