After much anticipation, Pennywise the Dancing Clown has begun his haunting return in HBO’s “IT: Welcome to Derry.“ The prequel series, set in 1962, has taken a calculated approach to reintroducing the iconic villain, building fear through his absence and subtle influence before a shadowy, potential appearance that has fans and characters alike asking, “Is that a clown?”
The series premiere on October 26, 2025 deliberately teased the clown’s presence without showing him directly. Instead, the first episode was filled with what one report described as “callbacks to the IT movies that hint at Pennywise’s resurrection.” The terror began with a family whose son’s eyes transformed into those of “a deranged extraterrestrial clown,” and a buck-toothed smile that served as a sinister reminder of Pennywise’s own. The horror escalated with the birth of a two-headed, bat-winged monster baby, a creature with clear visual ties to the nightmare fuel of the previous films.
Building Fear Before the First Laugh
The show’s creators have been strategic about the slow burn. In a recent interview, co-showrunner Brad Caleb Kane explained the reasoning behind withholding the clown. He pointed out that Pennywise has become a beloved pop culture figure, which can lessen his scare factor. The goal with “Welcome to Derry” was to “really make him scary again.” By dialing up other horrific set pieces and letting the audience’s imagination run wild, the series aims to make Pennywise’s eventual arrival feel truly terrifying.
This approach has meant that the children of 1962 Derry have been tormented by a variety of IT’s other gruesome manifestations. Beyond the mutant baby, they have encountered a screaming lampshade made of human faces, witnessed a friend’s rebirth nightmare under her bedsheets, and discovered a father’s preserved remains in pickle jars at the grocery store.
The Clown in the Crypt
The third episode, “Now You See It,” which aired on November 9, 2025, marked a potential turning point. The group of kids at the center of the story, determined to get proof of the evil entity tormenting them, venture into the Derry cemetery to draw IT out. After a harrowing encounter with swarms of ghosts, one of the children, Will Hanlon, snaps a photo of a growling presence deep inside a crypt.
When the photo develops, it reveals a shadowy figure that looks awfully familiar. As the kids lean in to look, the screen cuts to black and Will delivers the ominous line, “it’s a clown.” While this seems to confirm Pennywise’s physical arrival, the showrunners are playing coy. When asked directly if it was Pennywise, Kane teased, “Is that Pennywise at the end of 103? I don’t know. We think it is… nothing is as it seems, and anything can happen.” His co-showrunner, Jason Fuchs, added to the mystery, saying, “I think it’s Pennywise, don’t you?”
A Deeper Look at the Monster
The series also seeks to answer some long-standing questions about the Stephen King villain. The creators, who are self-described “mega fans” of the novel, are exploring the creature’s fundamental nature. Fuchs outlined some of the central mysteries the show will tackle, asking, “Why is it that IT, who can take virtually any form under the sun as a shape shifter, chooses to keep coming back to this form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown?” They also want to explore why this inter-dimensional being, “a creature of light in its most natural state,” chooses to remain in a small town like Derry when there are “seemingly more interesting hunting grounds.”
Bill Skarsgård does return to executive produce and reprise his role as Pennywise. His actual on-screen presence has been a closely guarded secret, with the marketing and early episodes focusing on the chaos he sows rather than the clown himself. This has built significant anticipation for the moment he finally steps into the light.
A Town Plagued by More Than a Monster
The horror in “Welcome to Derry” is not solely supernatural. The series is set two years before the Civil Rights Act was passed, and it does not ignore the “very real and very sinister racism” in America at that time. The Hanlon family, who are Black, moved from the South to Maine expecting a safer environment but instead find that “no place in America is safe in those terms.” The show explores their experience with racism, both from individuals and from systemic forces like the local police and military, creating a layer of real-world terror that parallels the supernatural threat.
This is compounded by the involvement of the military, which is searching for a mysterious “weapon” in the woods around Derry, led by General Francis Shaw. They are using Dick Hallorann—the character with psychic abilities famously portrayed in “The Shining”—to tap into the supernatural force, believing it could end the Cold War. This subplot suggests that the human forces in Derry might be just as dangerous as the alien one.
As “Welcome to Derry” continues its eight-episode season, the shadow of Pennywise looms larger. The cryptic clown in the photo signals that the wait for the real Pennywise may soon be over, promising that the worst is yet to come for the residents of Derry.
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