HBO’s It: Welcome to Derry Hides Pennywise Like Jaws — The Clown Won’t Show Up Until Much Later
It: Welcome to Derry keeps Pennywise mostly off-screen at first, building tension across episodes so his eventual appearance lands more like the shark in Jaws. The HBO series is set in 1960s Maine, expands the lore from the films, and uses a longer format to show multiple non-clown manifestations before Bill Skarsgård’s clown form appears.
Pennywise and the Jaws approach
The creators compare Pennywise’s reveal to the shark in Jaws. In other words, the show deliberately delays the full sight of the monster so that anticipation grows. As a result, viewers see hints and other forms of the creature long before the clown shows up in full.
When Pennywise appears
Jason Fuchs, who co-created Welcome to Derry and previously worked with Andy and Barbara Muschietti on It: Chapter Two, says Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise does not appear at the very beginning of the series. Furthermore, Skarsgård was initially hesitant to return because of how heavy the role can be. “Because, obviously, for someone that takes his work and his art so seriously as him, it takes a toll to live in the head of those characters for a long time,” Andy Muschietti told Screen Rant. However, conversations about the story’s merits convinced him to come back for the HBO show.
Manifestations and lore
The series leans into Pennywise’s shapeshifting nature and shows many non-clown forms. As Fuchs puts it, “It is a shapeshifting creature, and in the movies there’s only so much space to see those non-Pennywise manifestations,” Fuchs told EW. Consequently, Welcome to Derry uses its longer runtime to explore these manifestations and the town’s history in more detail than a film could.
In short, Pennywise’s presence is felt from episode one even if his full clown form arrives later. This method aims to keep tension high, while also giving fans a deeper look at the creature’s impact on Derry and its people.
