After the friends destroy the monster in Stephen King’s It, Stan Uris commits suicide rather than return to face their childhood terror.
Stan is one of the seven members of the Losers’ Club, who battle It in Derry as children and swear to return if the creature ever comes back. When It reappears roughly 27 years later, Mike Hanlon contacts the others to summon them home. The news overwhelms Stan, who is unable to confront the memories and fear he had buried.
The other Losers—Bill Denbrough, Ben Hanscom, Beverly Marsh, Richie Tozier, and Eddie Kaspbrak—return to Derry, while Mike has remained there and preserved his memories. Stan’s death is therefore not a mistaken identity or a reference to another character: it is a major early event in the adult section of the novel.
A common mix-up comes from the adaptations. In the 2019 film It Chapter Two, Stan’s posthumous letter gives his death an additional interpretation, suggesting he believed his absence might help the others. In King’s novel, however, his suicide is primarily presented as the result of terror at facing It again.