20 Things You Somehow Missed In The Shawshank Redemption
14. The Recurring Royal River
Throughout Stephen King’s novels, locations and characters will recur to give the impression that they all take place in the same universe (It’s even the basis of Hulu’s Castle Rock series). It would only make sense, then, that anyone working on a film version of one of King’s novels should try and bring this subtext to the screen.
Darabont gets it, which is why he made sure to include a reference to the Royal River. While it likely passed over viewers’ heads, the Royal River is the same river where the characters in 1986’s Stand by Me were attacked by leeches.
Since Andy tosses his gun into the treacherous waters, it must mean it's swimming with the leeches now.