Bill Skarsgard Teases a "Pretty Hardcore" Pennywise The Clown in IT: WELCOME TO DERRY
During a recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, actor Bill Skarsgard (Nosferatu) talked about the upcoming It spinoff series, It: Welcome to Derry, and says that Pennywise The Clown will be “pretty hardcore”.
At one point, Skarsgard was asked if Welcome to Derry will be as scary as the films. Skarsgard answered: “It's pretty hardcore, man.”
The actor went on to share: “It was fun. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, actually, and there’s parts of it where we got to explore sides of old Pennywise that we haven’t seen. And that’s fun.
“I remembered how much I enjoy working with Andy and we do have a lot of fun together. I think there’s some cool stuff in there that we haven’t seen that I’m excited for the people to watch and enjoy hopefully.”
When previously talking about the series, the actor said that will explore some things about Pennywise that we haven't seen yet.
Skarsgard said: "I don’t know why, but Pennywise is very accessible for me. So in terms of getting back into it, it was just like 'Da da dah!', and he explodes out. He’s so defined, he’s sort of dormant but very easily activated.
“We explored things that we haven’t explored in the movies – particularly one side of it, which I can’t into. I hope fans are excited.”
The prequel series dives into those murky waters, peeling back layers of Derry’s sinister past and exploring an early encounter with It that’s as haunting as anything from the original story.
It promises to bring to life some of the most haunting moments in It, the "interludes" that punctuated the horror between Pennywise and the Loser’s Club in King's novel.
This nine-episode series, developed by the Muschiettis and It: Chapter Two scribe Jason Fuchs, will delve deep into the origins of It’s reign of terror on Derry.
When previously talking about the series, Andy and Barbara said: "It’s so rich with characters and events, we thought we would do justice to the book and the fans by going back into this world.
“Specifically, we are telling the stories of the interludes, writings by Mike Hanlon based on his investigation that includes interviews he conducts with the older people in the town. In Welcome to Derry, we touch on the usual themes that were talked about in the movie — friendship, loss, the power of unified belief — but this story focuses also on the use of fear as a weapon, which is one of the things that is also relevant to our times."
Muschietti says: ""Twenty-seven years is the dormant period of Pennywise. It’s a different part of American history with a new set of fears for children, as well as adults having in mind the cost of the Cold War.
“Our baseline is 1962, but we do a few jumps to the past.... Every 27 years when It appears, It’s cycle is marked by two catastrophic events, one at the beginning and one in the end. We are using the Black Spot as an event in which many stories are built around."
They went on to say: "We will explore the origins of Pennywise, but like in the book, we’ll do it with a healthy dose of crypticism."
It: Welcome to Derry is set to premiere on HBO and stream on Max in 2025.