Every Stephen King Book That References Pennywise and IT (There’s More Than You Think)

To date, Stephen King has written over sixty novels, hundreds of short stories, and created countless characters and narratives that have defined pop culture. Even his first novel, 1974’s Carrie, was a defining moment in entertainment as it quickly became the basis for a movie and set the stage for King’s work being adapted into other mediums for decades. His work continues to terrify people even today, with fans revisiting the likes of The Shining, Cujo, and Pet Sematary, not to mention his new stories that very quickly get turned into films and TV shows.

Despite his success, there’s one element of King’s work that has persisted more than anything else: Pennywise the Dancing Clown, aka IT. Even before the 2017 re-adaptation of the novel, the monster had taken on a huge life of its own thanks to Tim Curry’s performance in 1990. Now, fueled by Bill Skarsgård’s appearances in the IT movies and Welcome to Derry TV series, the character isn’t going anywhere. What some fans may not know though, is that IT isn’t confined to his own totemic novel and makes surprise appearances across other King stories, some of which may imply a future for the beast.

8) Gray Matter

First published in 1973, “Gray Matter” has a surprising relationship to IT snice it predates the novel itself. In the story one character referecnes a friend named George Kelso who worked for the public works department in Bangor, noting that one time went down in to a sewer pipe his usual laughing, joyful self, only to return fifteen minutes later, “hair just as white as snow” and eyes “like he just looked through a window into hell,” later revealing he claimed to have seen a giant spider. Despite this story being written well over a decade before IT, fans of the novel will recognize these details as key elements of the monster, with the actual form of IT appearing more like a spider than Pennywise and Kelso’s condition appearing to match that of anyone who has encountered the Deadlights.

7) Dreamcatcher

The pages of Dreamcatcher has one of the most overt references to IT and Pennywise found in any other Stephen King novel, and it’s one that carries much bigger ramifications than any other on this list, except for the final one. Upon a trip to Derry, a bronze statue and plaque are found that read:

“To those lost in the storm,
May 31, 1985
and to the children,
all the children.
Love from Bill, Ben, Bev, Eddie, Richie,
Stan, Mike
The Losers’ Club.”

This plaque marks one of the only instances of the Losers’ Club in the time after the events of the novel IT, remembering the specific day that Pennywise was defeated and the storm that swept through Derry that same day. This isn’t the only message found on the plaque, though, as spraypainted across it are two words: “Pennywise Lives.” With Dreamcatcher set in the early 2000s, it would be it on par with the 27-year timeline for IT and appeared to be teasing the return of the creature.

6) The Tommyknockers

Released just one year after IT, The Tommyknockers is one of the only other King books to actually feature a cameo by Pennywise, though it’s possible the whole thing is just a drug-induced hallucination. Tommy Jacklin, tripping while driving through Derry, makes the claim in the book that he “thought he saw a clown grinning up at him from an open sewer manhole – a clown with shiny silver dollars for eyes and a clenched white glove filled with balloons.” All of which lines up with how Pennywise is described in IT, though it’s unclear where it falls in connection with the larger IT timeline.

5) 11/22/63

Though Pennywise himself does not appear in this time-travel story from King, two major characters from The Losers Club do appear. In the story, Jake Epping travels back in time from 2011 to 1958 and pays a visit to Derry just after the events of IT have taken place for the younger version of the characters. Not only does Jake quickly pick up on how things are a little off in Derry, but he hears tale from a bartender about bully Patrick Hockstetter’s corpse being discovered. Later still, he runs into two members of The Loser’s Club, Richie and Bev, having already defeated IT as kids.

4) Insomnia

Again, Pennywise himself isn’t found in the story, but a major character and one huge event show up. Set in Derry, Isomnia features none other than Mike Hanlon, still a librarian in the town, who helps the lead character in a brief cameo appearance. References to the big storm of 1985 are also found in the text, but more importantly than that is the antagonist of Insomnia, The Crimson King. Though more closely associated with The Dark Tower, many fans have believed that this character has ties to Pennywise and may very well be IT’s father. At one point in Insomnia, The Crimson King even says, “shape-shifting is a time-honored custom in Derry,” referencing IT’s ability to transform.

3) Elevation

Blink and you’ll miss this one, as Elevation very briefly features a band called Big Top who decide to change their name for a performance at a high school Halloween dance, becoming Pennywise and the Clowns. It’s just one line and has little else to do with the story, but it’s a fun reference to King obsessives.

2) Later

Though not set in Derry, featuring no cameos by the Losers, or even a mention of Pennywise, King’s 2021 novel has two major connections to IT. In the story, the protagonist, Jamie, can see ghosts, and encounters one that appears to be possessed by a demon. Eventually, he learns about a ritual that can help him combat the spirit, the Ritual of Chüd, something IT fans know well, as it’s what the Loser’s Club uses to defeat Pennywise in the end. Furthermore, after Jamie defeats the demon, he refers to it as, you guessed it, a deadlight.

1) Gwendy’s Final Task

The final book in his trilogy co-written with Richard Chizmar, Gwendy’s Final Task makes a pitstop briefly to Derry, Maine, where plenty of residences reference “the clown” and one woman claims to have been “chased down a dark street by a giggling man dressed as a circus clown” as a teenager, describing him as having “razors for teeth and huge round silver eyes.” The setting of the book, well beyond the 1980s, has given many fans the belief that once again King is teasing Pennywise is still alive, and terrorizing Derry to this day.

Every Actor That Has Played Stephen King’s IT and Pennywise (There’s Way More Than You Think)