Bill Skarsgård Has A Wild New Way To Approach Pennywise After Welcome To Derry Season 1, Explaining How Stephen King Left The Door Open For Interpretation

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I’ve really enjoyed covering all the new developments surrounding the IT franchise during my time at TopMob. I started back in 2017, asking the young stars – Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs, Wyatt Oleff, Jaeden Martell, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, and Jack Dylan Grazer – who they envisioned playing their older selves in a potential sequel. Then, in 2019, I spoke with them again about the possibility of revisiting the story in a 2044 remake of IT: Chapter 2. Most recently, late last year, I interviewed the cast of IT: Welcome To Derry Season 1 and discussed the show’s future with co-showrunner Jason Fuchs.

I’ve interviewed pretty much everyone connected to this franchise over the last ten years, but there was one person I hadn’t gotten to – Bill Skårsgard, the actor who plays Pennywise. That finally changed earlier this week, and I’m excited to share our conversation soon!

I interviewed the actor on Monday while he was promoting his new film, Dead Man’s Wire. I specifically asked him about his work on IT: Welcome to Derry, and his insights form the main focus of this week’s edition of The King Beat. He shared a fresh perspective on his iconic character.

After IT: Welcome To Derry Season 1, Bill Skarsgård Talks Wrapping His Mind Around Pennywise In A Whole New Way

Be warned: This contains major spoilers for Season 1 of IT: Welcome to Derry. If you haven’t finished the season yet, we recommend watching it on HBO Max before continuing!

Bill Skarsgård was especially excited to return as Pennywise in IT: Welcome To Derry because of the story of Bob Gray. The series allowed him to delve into the origins of Pennywise’s iconic dancing clown form, exploring how the ancient entity IT first adopted that persona.

We already know the basic story, but the show’s season finale opened up a really interesting new perspective. It revealed how the artificial intelligence, IT, experiences time, and hinted that its awareness will unfold in reverse order compared to the timelines we’ll see in future seasons – moving backwards from 1962 to 1935 and then to 1908.

In the video, I spoke with Bill Skarsgård about the news regarding “Welcome to Derry.” He smiled while sharing his discussions with Andy Muschietti, the co-creator, producer, and director, and agreed that the character, as originally imagined by Stephen King, is truly unique and unexpected. He then started to explain…

I was talking to Andy, and he explained the general storyline of the show. I then asked him to clarify the core concept – specifically, what the show’s equivalent of Pennywise and the story of ‘IT’ would be. It’s a really complex idea, dealing with this otherworldly evil creature connected to spiders and turtles, and it’s quite far-fetched.

If you’re familiar with Stephen King’s IT, you’ll understand what’s being discussed. King is usually a very visual writer – his first editor famously said he practically directs movies in his head – but some parts of the massive 1986 novel are incredibly bizarre and push the limits of imagination. So far, movie and TV versions have only hinted at the monster’s true origins, involving a vast, alternate universe and an ancient conflict with a giant turtle named Maturin.

You know, Bill Skarsgård was talking about how loose the adaptation is with the character, and it really got me thinking. He made a fascinating point – even Stephen King himself isn’t necessarily the ultimate authority on his own work! Apparently, King was battling some serious personal issues while writing the novel, which definitely influenced things. So, trying to pinpoint a single ‘true’ interpretation is pretty much impossible, and honestly, that’s kind of exciting.

You know, when I read the book, it struck me how open to interpretation it is. It’s one of those stories where I don’t even think Stephen King himself has a single, definitive explanation for everything. I’ve even heard stories about him not fully remembering the writing process – apparently, he was in a really creative headspace at the time, and things just flowed!

The key discovery in the discussion comes from the season one finale of IT: Welcome To Derry. After Pennywise separates Marge Truman (Matilda Lawler) from her friends, the terrifying clown reveals to her that she will eventually become Margaret Tozier and have a son named Richie who will play a role in either its destruction or, surprisingly, its creation. This moment highlights that this otherworldly evil doesn’t perceive time the way humans do.

I’ve heard Bill Skarsgård and director Andy Muschietti talked a lot, and Bill was careful not to reveal too much about what’s coming in the show – he didn’t want to spoil anything! But from what I understand, a big part of their discussions was about how Pennywise actually sees time. It sounds like that’s a really important piece of the puzzle.

I was exploring this idea of a being that exists outside of our dimension, and I started thinking about time. I wondered what time even means to something that isn’t bound by the same rules as us. It led me to the concept of a character experiencing events in multiple timelines, which is where that plot point originated. I don’t want to give away too much, but that’s the core of it.

As a huge fan of the IT films, I always loved the little details they packed in! Apparently, the idea of Pennywise having this weird sense of time – knowing about events from the past – came about during the creative process. But Bill Skarsgård, who plays Pennywise, made it clear that the brilliant visual of Pennywise revealing a missing person flyer for Richie Tozier was all director Andy Muschietti’s doing. It was a fantastic callback to the first IT movie, and Skarsgård really emphasized Muschietti’s vision for that specific moment.

That one scene really delved into the idea of Pennywise being disoriented by time. Then, Andy emphasized this with the Richie Tozier missing person flyer – it was a nod to fans of the original movies. It’s a neat little detail, but it’s not central to the show’s overall story. In fact, a whole season focuses on events where Pennywise isn’t heavily involved, so it served as a bookend to the season’s arc.

Looking ahead, the show’s future is uncertain, especially since there’s been no official word on whether it will continue beyond a potential renewal of IT: Welcome To Derry. The first season ended with a key question: could the creature, Pennywise, be targeting the ancestors of the Losers Club, altering their history? Season 2 will explore the past, specifically 1935, and may connect to a notorious real-life crime – the Bradley Gang massacre – suggesting this could be a central plot point.

Bill Skarsgård admits he doesn’t know what’s next, but he’s excited about the new path for his famous horror character. He finds it particularly interesting that the villain seems to connect more with viewers at home than with the people he’s frightening in Derry. He ended by…

I’m not entirely sure what the direction of the story is. But it’s interesting to think about how Pennywise’s backwards journey could feel like progress to both him and the viewers. It means we’ll likely have to wait a couple of years between each season, which is a bit of a wait!

The biggest disappointment with the ongoing wait for news about IT: Welcome to Derry is how it delays everything – whether it’s just a renewal for one more season or approval to make all three planned seasons. The longer it takes to officially confirm Season 2, the longer it will take for production to actually begin. As Bill Skarsgård hinted, it’s looking like we won’t see new episodes until at least 2027, and that’s a long time to wait.

For now, fans can enjoy Stephen King’s novel IT and its adaptations: the movies IT: Chapter One and IT: Chapter Two, and the first season of the series IT: Welcome to Derry. You can currently stream all three adaptations on HBO Max. While the movies are available on DVD and Blu-ray, the series will be released on 4K UHD and Blu-ray this spring.

That concludes this week’s special edition of The King Beat, but this column will continue through 2026. I’ll be back on TopMob next week with a new article about Stephen King and his work (and I’m still hoping for a renewal of Welcome To Derry!). In the meantime, you can read about the history of Stephen King’s adaptations in my series, Adapting Stephen King.

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2026-01-15 20:11