If you’ve been wanting to know more about the cinematic take on Pennywise in ‘It‘ then you’ll be happy about the sequel! Director Andy Muschietti shows that while the first film will only introduce us to Pennywise through the eyes of the Loser’s Club, the sequel will explore a bit more about the character’s past. Not only that but actor Bill Skarsgard has also stated that we’ll be seeing more of Pennywise’s past.
This isn’t necessarily something to be excited about though. Fans of ‘Halloween’ have seen what can happen first hand when you remove the mystery of a character’s origins. Michael Myers was always terrifying and even though he was scary in Rob Zombie’s remake, giving him the extensive back story took away from the fright of the unknown.
In his interview, Skarsgard stated that:
“I am attached to it but that’s all I can say, we’re in the early stages and I’m talking to [IT director Andy Muschietti] about it and figuring out what it will be. It’s a different story, but I’m excited to delve in deeper to the character as there’s more exploration for who Pennywise is.”
That doesn’t tell us too much about what direction because as Muschietti mentioned, details can be in the eyes of the beholder:
“Getting into that other dimension — the other side — was something that we could introduce in the second part. In the book the perspective of the writing… is always with the Losers, so everything they know about Pennywise is very speculative and shrouded in absurdity, so I wanted to respect that mystery feeling of not knowing what’s on the other side.”
The character of Pennywise isn’t just an ever living demon though as he does evolve over the course of the film:
“There is depth and a change in Pennywise from the first scene to the last and there’s a journey there, and I’m glad you said that and it resonated with you – that’s exactly what I want people to feel, “wait a minute what is this thing?” And I think that’s what I wanted and that’s where I want to go for the second one, to delve into the psychological and metaphysical spaces of this transdimensional being.”
There are a lot of direction which they can take the character going off of King’s writing or be going off in his own direction. While we know that Muschietti is primarily playing by Stephen King’s playbook, there is no need to follow it verbatim. I’m pretty sure that as long as we don’t have a horribly under budget spider transformation as either film comes to a close that audiences will likely end up happy.
Are you looking forward to how we’ll see Pennywise introduced to the Loser’s Club in ‘It’ this weekend? Share your thoughts about expanding on this horror icon in the second film below!
