Could We See More IT Movies with Pennywise The Clown? Director Andy Muschietti Says There's Enough Mythology To Explore
The story of Stephen King’s IT comes to a close with the release of IT: Chapter 2, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we’ve seen the last of Pennywise The Clown. For those of you who have read the book, you know that there’s a backstory for Pennywise that could be explored in another film.
Andy Muschietti is very aware of this and believes that there’s enough material in the mythology to mine, that a another film could come out of it, and that’s something he’d be excited to explore. During and interview with io9, he said:
“There is a whole mythology to the book though…Mythology is something that always has opportunities to explore. It [aka Pennywise] has been on Earth for millions of years. He’s been in contact with humans for hundreds of years, every 27 years. So you can imagine the amount of material. It’s always exciting to think of eventually exploring this mythology. It’s very exciting. But, for now, there’s nothing on the table.”
I’ve always been fascinated with the mythology of Pennywise, and it would be awesome to see it explored in another movie! There are so many different time periods to explore and so much history. Hell, there could be multiple films based on the Pennywise lore!
Here’s some of the history that was mentioned in the book. As you’ll see there are a lot of interesting and super dark tales to tell:
It arrived on Earth in a massive cataclysmic event similar to an asteroid impact, landing in a location in North America that would eventually become Derry, Maine.
Once people settled over this location, It adopted its usual pattern of a 27-30 year hibernation, waking to kill and eat. Each awakening and return to hibernation is sometimes marked by a violent act, such as a mass murder or weather event. In the period between, a series of child murders occurring in Derry are never solved. It is outwardly explained that a series of murders, no matter how gruesome, don't get reported if they happen in the small town. However, the real reason is that the influence of It prevents anyone from investigating too deeply.
Here’s the timeline for IT:
1715 – 1716: IT painfully awakes.
1740 – 1743: IT starts a three-year reign of terror that culminates in the disappearance of over three hundred settlers from Derry Township (similar to the lost Roanoke Colony, which was founded as a logging town.)
1769 – 1770: IT awakes again.
1851: IT awakes when a man named John Markson poisons his own family, then commits suicide by eating a white nightshade mushroom, causing an excruciating death.
1876 – 1879: IT awakes, then returns to hibernation after murdering a group of lumberjacks who were later found near the Kenduskeag Stream.
1904: IT awakes when a lumberjack named Claude Heroux murders a dozen men in a bar with just one axe. Heroux was promptly pursued by a mob of townsfolk and hung.
1906: IT returns to hibernation when the Kitchener Ironworks explode, killing 108 people, 88 of whom were children at an Easter egg hunt.
1929: IT awakes when a group of Derry citizens ambushes and kills the Bradley Gang, a group of robbers and murderers. The town, including its police chief, pretends it never happened. However, a witness later recounts the tale to Mike Hanlon, including seeing a clown in farmer's attire participating in the slaying.
1930: IT returns to hibernation when the Maine Legion of White Decency, a Northern counterpart to the Ku Klux Klan, burns down "The Black Spot", a nightclub known to cater to African-Americans at the nearby army base. IT appears at the location as a giant bird with balloons on its wings.
From there is when the story in the book picks up. You get the idea. I would personally love to see all of these stories brought to life on the big screen! I have no idea if they will be, but they are there for the taking if it’s something that Warner Bros. wants to move forward with.
It: Chapter Two arrives in theaters on September 6, 2019.