It (character)

It, also known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown or Robert "Bob" Gray, is the titular antagonist in Stephen King's 1986 horror novel It. It is an ancient, trans-dimensional malevolent entity who preys upon the children (and sometimes adults) of Derry, Maine, roughly every 27 years, using a variety of powers that include the ability of shapeshifting and manipulation of reality. During the course of the story, It primarily appears in the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. A group of Derry children who call themselves the "Losers Club" becomes aware of Its presence after It kills Bill Denbrough's little brother, Georgie.

The character was portrayed in its Pennywise form by Tim Curry in the 1990 television adaptation^[1] and by Bill Skarsgård in the 2017 film adaptation and its 2019 sequel It Chapter Two.^[2] Skarsgård is set to reprise the role in the upcoming Max series It: Welcome to Derry, due to be released in 2025.^[3][4]

King stated in a 2013 interview that he came up with the idea for Pennywise after asking himself what children feared "more than anything else in the world", and feeling that the answer was clowns.^[5][6] While walking across a wooden bridge in Colorado after writing The Stand, King thought of a troll like the one in the children's tale "Three Billy Goats Gruff",^[7][8] though he imagined it living in a sewer system rather than under a bridge. He said that the whole story "just bounced" into his head; in particular the fact that It could shapeshift.^[8] By taking a familiar image — a clown — and turning it into a monster, King tapped into a fear of clowns that would be famously amplified by his novel.^[9] As Lauren Christie of the University of Dundee wrote, the clown "resulted in decades of nightmares and numerous cases of coulrophobia"; he frequently transformed innocent objects such as paper boats or friendly faces into sources of dread.^[9] Children instinctively sense something strange or unnerving about a clown, seeing them as potentially threatening adults wearing costumes.^[9][10] The clown's makeup itself functions as a mask of sorts: Pennywise's white face, suit, and grin seem fun to an adult observer, but children see them as unnerving.^[9]

In the novel, the Losers come to understand It to be a taelus, a Himalayan term for an evil being that reads its target's mind and assumes the shape of whatever the target was most afraid of, similar to a boggart. It feeds on frightened children, which is why It terrorizes Its victims before killing them. Commentators have thus noted Its resemblance to a "Lovecraftian horror" dwelling beneath Derry.^[11]

In the 1990 miniseries, Tim Curry's Pennywise was designed to appear at first like a regular circus clown. Special effects artist Bart Mixon avoided making Pennywise look like a monster at first glance, saying "90% of the time he's suckering kids in."^[12][13] He began drawing concepts for how Pennywise would look before Curry was cast, researching the looks of most other clowns in the process.^[14] Original storyboards for Pennywise featured exaggerated cheekbones, a sharp chin, and bulbous forehead.^[15] There are no overtly inhuman features apparent in Curry's Pennywise until It attacks Its victim. Curry and his team found it most effective to let Curry's facial expressions carry the horror instead.^[12]

In the 2017 and 2019 films, director Andy Muschietti chose a new interpretation of the character's look and feel. Bill Skarsgård's Pennywise is more overtly creepy, less humorous, and stands out more. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, costume designer Janie Bryant spoke of crafting Pennywise's form-fitting suit and the inspirations to which it drew upon involving a number of bygone times such as the Medieval, Renaissance, Elizabethan, and Victorian eras.^[16] Bryant explained that she wished for Pennywise to have an organic element about himself, paying attention to King's description of Pennywise as wearing a silvery-gray clown suit.^[17] Muschietti spoke of the fact that the entity of Pennywise has been around for thousands of years, thus from an esthetic standpoint wished to depart from the 20th century clown framework, in which he stated^[18] "I think it looks cheap, and it's too related to social events and stuff and circus and stuff. Circus is fine, but I'm more aesthetically attracted to the old time, like the 19th century clown. And given that this guy has been around for centuries, I wondered myself why, why not, having an upgrade that was 1800s?"^[19] Muschietti often kept Pennywise hidden in shadows or out of the camera's focus; a critic observed that Pennywise was a "jittering, twitching mess of a monster" whose form is constantly unsettling and unpredictable.^[20] Even Pennywise's eyes have unsettling tricks to them, where one eye subtly drifts off into another direction, giving the clown a not-quite-human stare.^[21] One analysis noted that Skarsgård's Pennywise was a "sadistic predator" who took pleasure from killing.^[20]

It does not have just one physical appearance, as It has the ability to shapeshift and is seen doing so throughout the It novel. Its most notable form is that of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, who is described in the book as wearing a silvery clown suit with orange pom-poms and red hair.^[22] Among the other forms It is seen shifting into are Georgie (as well as his rotting corpse taunting Bill), a leper, a mummy, and a witch (otherwise known as Mrs. Kersh).^[22] It is also seen taking the forms of various children and adults (both alive and dead) from Derry in order to scare or manipulate Its prey, particularly the Losers.

Its true form, however, is unknown. It is said that the closest the human mind can come to perceiving It is the "deadlights," which are capable of hypnotizing or killing anyone who stares into them. The only person to survive the ordeal is Bill's wife Audra, although she is rendered temporarily catatonic by the experience. In the 2017 film adaptation and its 2019 sequel, Beverly Marsh gets captured by Pennywise and is shown the deadlights, causing her to float and to become unconscious; she is eventually woken by a kiss from her lover Ben Hanscom. In It Chapter Two, it is revealed that this experience resulted in Beverly having visions of the future. The final physical form It is seen in during the Losers' final battle is that of a monstrous giant spider that lays eggs.^[22]

In the novel, It is a shapeshifting alien who usually takes the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, originating in a void containing and surrounding the universe — a place referred to in the novel as the "Macroverse". It arrived on Earth during an asteroid impact and made its home under the land upon which Derry would later be constructed, initially preying on North American tribes. It slept for millions of years, then, when humans appeared in the area, It awoke and began a feeding cycle lasting about a year, feeding on people's fears and frequently assuming the shape of whatever its prey feared the most. After feeding, It would resume dormancy for approximately twenty-seven years before reappearing. It has a preference for children since their fears are easier to interpret and adults are more difficult to frighten while It is in physical form. It can manipulate weak-willed people, making them indifferent to the horrific events that unfold, or even serve as accomplices, such as when Pennywise manipulates the school bully, Henry Bowers, to eliminate the remaining members of the Losers' Club.

In the novel, It introduces Itself to other characters as Robert "Bob" Gray, but is often referred to in the book (and in the film captioning tracks) as "It" with a capital I.^[a] Throughout the book, It is generally referred to as male, usually appearing as Pennywise. The Losers come to believe It may be female after seeing Its spider form and the eggs It laid. However, Its true appearance is briefly observed by Bill via the Ritual of Chüd as a mass of swirling destructive orange lights known as "deadlights", which inflict insanity or death on any living being that sees them directly.

Its natural enemy is the "Space Turtle" or "Maturin", another ancient dweller of King's "Macroverse" who, eons ago, created the known universe and possibly others by vomiting them out as the result of a stomachache. The Turtle appears again in King's The Dark Tower series. One of the novels in the series, Wizard and Glass, suggests that It, along with the Turtle, are themselves creations of a separate, omnipotent creator referred to as "the Other".

Throughout the novel It, some events are depicted from Its point of view, describing Itself as a "superior" being, with the Turtle as an equal and humans as mere "toys". Its hibernation begins and ends with horrific events, like the mysterious disappearance of Derry Township's 300 settlers in 1740–43 or the town's later ironworks explosion. It awoke during a great storm that flooded part of the city in 1957, with Bill's younger brother Georgie the first in a line of killings before the Losers Club fight the monster, a confrontation culminating in Bill using the Ritual of Chüd to severely wound It and force It into hibernation. Continually surprised by the Losers' victory, It briefly questions Its superiority before claiming that they were only lucky, as the Turtle is working through them. It is finally killed 27 years later in a second Ritual of Chüd, and an enormous storm damages the downtown part of Derry to symbolize Its death.

Pennywise makes a tangential appearance in King's 2011 novel 11/22/63, in which protagonist Jake Epping meets a couple of the children from It, asks them about a recent murder in their town, and learns that the murderer apparently "wasn't the clown." It also appears to Jake in the old ironworks, where it taunts Jake about "the rabbit hole," referring to the time portal in which Jake moves from one time to another.

In the 1990 miniseries, Pennywise is portrayed by English actor Tim Curry.

In the 2017 film adaptation, It, its 2019 sequel It Chapter Two, and its prequel television series It – Welcome to Derry, Pennywise is portrayed by Swedish actor Bill Skarsgård.^[23][24] English actor Will Poulter was originally cast as Pennywise, with Curry describing the role as a "wonderful part" and wishing Poulter the best of luck, but the latter dropped out of the production due to scheduling conflicts and the first film's original director Cary Fukunaga leaving the project. Skarsgård's Pennywise appears as a background character in the family friendly live-action/animated film Space Jam: A New Legacy, which is also distributed by Warner Bros.^[25] In 2023, it was originally announced that Skarsgård would not be participating in the prequel series It – Welcome to Derry because he wanted to leave the character behind and focus on other roles,^[26][4] but by 2025 he changed his mind.^[4][3]

Several media outlets such as The Guardian have spoken of the character, ranking Pennywise as one of the scariest clowns in film or pop culture.^[27][28][29] The Atlantic said of the character: "The scariest thing about Pennywise, though, is how he preys on children's deepest fears, manifesting the monsters they're most petrified by."^[30]British scholar Mikita Brottman has also said of the miniseries version of Pennywise; "one of the most frightening of evil clowns to appear on the small screen" and that it "reflects every social and familial horror known to contemporary America".^[31] Author Darren Shan cited Pennywise as an inspiration behind the character Mr. Dowling in his 12.5 book serial Zom-B.^[32] Rolling Stone praised Skarsgård's performance in 2019 as a "phobic masterpiece", adding that "onscreen, he feels like he's burrowing into your psyche".^[33] Even Skarsgård and Stephen King themselves were scared by the character, with Skarsgård telling Entertainment Weekly that he started seeing the character in his dreams after filming^[34][35] and King saying in a Reddit post that he would not revisit It because it was "too scary, even for me."^[36] On Rotten Tomatoes, critics rated Skarsgård's performance in 2017 as his highest up until that point.^[37]

Literary scholars have noted that It uses Pennywise to embody the collective evil of Derry. Anthony Magistrale observed that the novel portrays how Derry "institutionalize[s] child abuse" so much that "Pennywise's actions merely reflect the town's general indifference towards its children."^[38] The clown is a mirror to the town's worst impulses. Critics such as those in the Los Angeles Review of Books have also highlighted that King "refuses to distinguish" between Its supernatural crimes and the humans in Derry who exhibit negative traits such as racism.^[39] These everyday horrors are not simply caused by It, but are a replica of Its nature; It is compared to Derry several times in the book. This has lead several scholars to interpret Pennywise as a cultural metaphor for real-world anxieties of the time the story takes place.^[40] Scholars and critics also say that Pennywise marks a turning point in the cultural perception of clowns, transforming them from benign jesters to scary villains; a study by Michelle Gompf in 2018 claimed that It was pivotal in cementing clowns as evil and no longer harmless.^[41] Critics note that Its many forms play on typical childhood terrors, but that the character of Pennywise resonates most with readers. Some scholars see the character as reflecting psychological fears using Its shapeshifting abilities, also noting that by doing so it subverts the historical role of clowns.^[40] Audiences and critics reacted to the 2017 and 2019 film adaptations of It with a mix of fear and fascination; reviewer Katie Kilkenny of Pacific Standard felt that clowns "remain forever terrifying."^[42] Gompf's examining of Pennywise's appeal found that a subset of viewers expressed an attraction or affinity toward Skarsgård's Pennywise. She saw this as the result of either the actor himself or a broader pop-culture trend of romanticizing charismatic anti-heroes such as Loki or Hannibal Lecter.^[41] Gompf also noted that fans were debating the appeal of Pennywise's new design amongst themselves; early promotional images of Skarsgård in costume divided fans over whether the character was too frightening or not frightening enough.^[41] She said that in particular, Pennywise's visual aesthetic, facial expressions, and posture helped create a sense of dread in viewers.^[41]

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes lauded Skarsgård's performance for its ferocity and creativity, while still comparing it to Curry's performance in the 1990 miniseries.^[43] They felt that Skarsgård leaned more into unnatural and alien-like behaviors (his posture and stillness, for example) to make the audience feel uneasy.^[43] One critic, Ananya Roy, linked Pennywise to real-life killer clowns such as John Wayne Gacy as well as the concept of uncanny valleys.^[44] Roy indicates that the late 2010s clown panic did not begin nor end with the It films, but that King's work accelerated the phenomenon. Clowns, she says, occupy a middle ground between joyful figures and horrifying nightmares;^[44] the fictional representation of monstrous clowns reflects and amplifies real-world fears, contributing to a cycle of coulrophobia in popular culture.^[44]

Scholars have also examined deeper themes in how audiences interpret Pennywise's defeat. The climax of It Chapter Two involves the Losers confronting the creature not with physical weapons but by standing up to It and mocking It, reducing It from a towering mix of clown and spider to an impotent, shriveled form. As one academic essay suggests, the story of It is ultimately about the relationship people have with their fears.^[40] Its power lies in exploiting fear and imagination; thus, It is weak against targets who are not afraid of It, who have conquered their fears. Culturally, some critics even read Pennywise as the manifestation of personal or historical trauma that must be confronted.^[40]

The character was suggested as a possible inspiration for two incidents of people dressing up as clowns in Northampton, England and Staten Island, New York, US, both during 2014.^[5][46]

In 2016, appearances of "evil clowns" were reported by the media, including nine people in Alabama, US charged with "clown-related activity".^[47] Several newspaper articles suggested that the character of Pennywise was an influence, which led to King commenting that people should react less hysterically to the sightings and not take his work seriously.^[48]

The first reported sighting of people dressed as evil clowns in Greenville, South Carolina, US was by a small boy who spoke to his mother about a pair of clowns that had attempted to lure him away.^[49] Additional creepy clown sightings were reported in other parts of South Carolina.^[50] Evil clowns were reported in several other U.S. states including North Carolina,^[51] Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming.^[52] Later the same year, "clown sightings" were reported in Great Britain, Australia, Germany, and Latin America.^{[53][54][55][56]}

One hypothesis for the wave of 2016 clown sightings was a viral marketing campaign.^[57][58] A spokesperson for New Line Cinema (distributor of the 2017 film adaptation of It) released a statement claiming that "New Line is absolutely not involved in the rash of clown sightings."^[59]

• Apex predator
• Evil clown
• Joker
• Monster
• Tsuchigumo
• Shapeshifting

• It on IMDb