It, commonly known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, is the titular main antagonist of Stephen King's 1986 horror novel It, and its adaptations. The character is an ancient, trans-dimensional malevolent entity who preys upon the children (and sometimes adults) of the fictional town of Derry, Maine, roughly every 27 years, using a variety of supernatural powers that include the abilities to shapeshift and manipulate reality. Over the course of the story, the character primarily appears in the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. A group of Derry children who call themselves the "Losers Club" becomes aware of Pennywise's presence after it kills Losers Club leader Bill Denbrough's little brother, Georgie; the children then decide to hunt it down and kill it. Pennywise was portrayed by Tim Curry in the 1990 television adaptation and by Bill Skarsgård in the 2017 film adaptation, its 2019 sequel It Chapter Two, and the HBO prequel series It: Welcome to Derry.
Inspired by fairytale trolls, King conceived of a shapeshifting entity living in the sewers that could embody whatever frightened its target most. Pennywise became the central form It used to lure children—appearing to be a harmless clown. Scholars and critics have noted the effectiveness of this design, as clowns are commonly viewed as uncanny (both in the sense of coulrophobia and in the form of the uncanny valley). Across the various adaptations of It, Pennywise's visual performance evolution reinforced coulrophobia. Curry's performance in the 1990 miniseries emphasized charm masking a hidden evil, while Skarsgård's version leaned into overt horror with twitchy movements and an animalistic stare. Critics praised Skarsgård's performance as sadistic and alien. Scholars also commented on how the character's various forms channeled classic childhood fears while also reflecting deeper social issues.
Concept
Novel In a 2013 interview, King stated that he conceived Pennywise after determining that what children feared "more than anything else in the world" was clowns. After finishing The Stand, King was walking across a bridge in Colorado when he imagined a troll like the one in the children's tale "Three Billy Goats Gruff", though he imagined it living in a sewer system rather than under a bridge. He said the whole story "just bounced" into his head; in particular the fact that the character could shapeshift. In 1985, while publishing Skeleton Crew, a book of short fiction, King conceived of the character as a "final exam on horror" featuring various childhood monsters, resulting in a shapeshifting creature that embodies fear. He said he thought he was done writing about monsters, and wanted to "bring on all the monsters one last time...and call it 'It'."
In the novel, the Losers believe "It" to be a taelus, a Himalayan creature that reads minds and assumes the shape of whatever his target fears most, similar to a boggart. Pennywise scares his victims first because he feeds on their fear, especially that of children. Commentators have thus argued that the character is a Lovecraftian horror dwelling beneath Derry.
Miniseries, television and films In the 1990 miniseries, Pennywise is portrayed by English actor Tim Curry. Curry's Pennywise was designed to portray 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." He began drawing concepts for how Pennywise would look before Curry was cast, researching the general appearances of clowns for inspiration. Original storyboards for Pennywise featured exaggerated cheekbones, a sharp chin, and a bulbous forehead. There are no overtly inhuman features apparent in Curry's Pennywise until it attacks. Curry and his team found it most effective to let Curry's facial expressions carry the horror instead.
English actor Will Poulter was originally cast as Pennywise in the 2017 film, 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 film's original director Cary Fukunaga leaving the project. After Poulter's departure, the role ultimately went to Swedish actor Bill Skarsgård, who portrayed the character in the 2017 film adaptation, It, its 2019 sequel It Chapter Two, and its prequel television series It: Welcome to Derry. In 2023, it was announced that Skarsgård would not be participating in It: Welcome to Derry because he wanted to leave the character behind and focus on other roles, but by 2024 he had changed his mind.
In the films, director Andy Muschietti chose a new interpretation of the character's look and feel. He said that he wanted to stay true to the character's essence, and that Skarsgård caught his attention. Skarsgård's Pennywise is more overtly creepy, less humorous, and stands out more. Muschietti said he wanted Pennywise to look older than a typical 20th-century clown, since the creature had existed for thousands of years. He felt that modern clowns looked "cheap" and were too tied to social events and circuses, saying he preferred the look of 19th-century clowns. Thus, he and his sister Barbara (the film's producer) decided to use the 1800s and earlier periods as an inspiration. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, costume designer Janie Bryant explained that Pennywise's suit was inspired by various historical eras, including the Medieval, Renaissance, Elizabethan, and Victorian periods. Bryant said she wanted Pennywise to feel more organic, drawing on King's description of him wearing a silvery-gray clown suit.
Skarsgård's Pennywise appears as a background character in the 2021 family-friendly film Space Jam: A New Legacy, which is also distributed by Warner Bros.
One analysis of the television series It: Welcome to Derry described the creature as a "demonic, liver-eating baby". The character is described as transforming into a family of people which gradually transform into demon-like creatures. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Muschietti compared the creature's first appearance and reveal to the one seen in Jaws. He pointed out that the television series provides more space to explore the character's various forms other than that of Pennywise, whose clown form is not shown until several episodes in.
Shapeshifting abilities The character can shapeshift and takes many forms throughout the novel, though its most iconic form is Pennywise the Dancing Clown described as having a baggy silvery white suit with orange pom-pom buttons down the front, big white gloves, a big electric blue tie (sometimes a big yellow bow tie), eyes that changed from yellow to blue to silver, two big tufts of red hair on either side of his bald head, white clown makeup and a big red clown smile painted over his mouth. Other forms the character takes include Georgie (as well as his rotting corpse), a leper, a mummy, and a witch. Pennywise is also seen impersonating various children and adults (both living and dead) from Derry in order to scare, taunt, or manipulate his prey, particularly the Losers.
The character's true form, however, is unknown. In-universe, 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 recover from the ordeal is Bill's wife Audra, although she is rendered temporarily catatonic by the experience. In It, Pennywise captures Beverly Marsh and shows her the deadlights, causing her to float and temporarily lose consciousness. In It Chapter Two, it is revealed that this experience resulted in Beverly having visions of the future. Losers' Club member Ben Hanscom comes dangerously close to seeing the deadlights and the shape behind the lights for a brief moment. He described what he saw as an endless, crawling, hairy creature made of orange light. The final physical form the character is seen in during the Losers' final battle is that of a monstrous giant spider that lays eggs.
Throughout the novel, It is generally referred to as male, calling himself "Bob Gray" and taking a male form as Pennywise the Clown. However, when confronting the character's spider form, the characters find out that the creature is most likely female, due to the character's final form in the physical realm being that of a giant female spider that was also pregnant.
Appearances Appearances in the novel
In the novel, "It" is a shapeshifting evil entity 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". Bill believes that It, along with the Turtle (Its benevolent equivalent), was created by an entity known as the "Other" (a mysterious, benevolent force beyond both Pennywise and the Turtle). Pennywise came to Earth in an asteroid crash and settled beneath the area that would become Derry. He slept for millions of years, then woke when humans arrived. He began a year-long or two years-long cycle of feeding on fear, taking the form of whatever his victims feared most. After feeding, Pennywise would go back into hibernation for about twenty-seven years before reappearing. He prefers to feed on children because their fears are easier to understand and manifest physically, and adults are harder to scare. He can control weak-minded people, either making them ignore the horrors around them or turning them into accomplices. When introducing himself to humans, he uses the name Robert "Bob" Gray.