IT Star Addresses His Pennywise Involvement in Welcome to Derry Prequel Series

Actor Bill Skarsgård defined the role of Stephen King’s Pennywise for an entire generation with his performances in IT and IT CHAPTER TWO, but with the new prequel series Welcome to Derry on the way, the actor admitted he’s not currently involved with the project in its current state. Given how early into the development process the series is, it’s possible that he’s merely not involved yet and could get involved at some point, but if the project required a new Pennywise performer to join the mix, Skarsgård offered some advice for the new recruit.

“We’ll see what they come up with and what they do with it. I’m, as of now, not currently involved in it,” Skarsgård shared with Jake’s Takes. “And if someone else gets to do it, my advice would just be: do it your own, make it your own, have fun with it, you know what I mean? What I thought was so pleasurable about that character was how incredibly abstract he was.” 

As the title of the series implies, rather than specifically being a prequel that focuses on the characters from IT or potentially even Pennywise, it’s an adventure that took place long before the events of the original story and chronicles otherworldly events that unfold in the small Maine community. With Pennywise merely being one form that an intergalactic terror took, the creature could manifest itself in entirely different ways to terrorize the figures from the upcoming series.

“If you start reading Stephen King’s cocaine-binged book, you just go like, ‘What the hell?’ There’s so, so many weird tantrums and abstractions that you can sit, and decipher, and that’s what I did with the character, and I really enjoy that aspect, and then inform the character,” the actor continued. “And the book is really a gift that way, so if someone would take it on, it’s just, go through the book, and find all the clues, and they’re so out there that you can kind of make your own conclusions to them.”

Prior to Skarsgård, Tim Curry played the character in a 1990 two-part adaptation of the novel for TV. If the series does enlist a new Pennywise, they’ll have their work cut out for them.

Stay tuned for details on Welcome to Derry.

Would you like to see Pennywise return in the new series? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!