Prepare yourself, Stephen King fans, as the saga of Pennywise the Dancing Clown inflates like a vibrant red balloon.
With IT: Welcome to Derry, Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti (the sibling directors behind IT and IT: Chapter Two) revisit the doomed Maine town where the Losers Club battled for their survival twice over 27 years. However, Bill, Beverly, Eddie, Mike, Richie, Stan, and Ben are not featured in this new series. Taking place in 1962, this prequel reveals events 27 years before their first encounter with Pennywise. Yet fear not, the clown is certainly back — just not in the way you might expect.
Pennywise is a central figure in the promotional material for IT: Welcome to Derry. It’s confirmed that Bill Skarsgård reprises his role from the films and serves as an executive producer for the series. However, the clown is absent in the opening episode. Nevertheless, there are nods to the IT films that suggest Pennywise’s return. So, let us investigate these connections.
Caution: Major spoilers lie ahead.
Where does Pennywise make an appearance in episode 1 of IT: Welcome to Derry?
The initial indications come with the unfortunate Matty (Miles Ekhardt), who has fled home only to find himself in a mess. In his attempt to leave Derry, he catches a ride with a family of four. Yet, things swiftly take a terrifying turn with a growling sister munching on bloody liver and a bothersome little brother spelling out increasingly foreboding words.
It is this brother who provides our first clue to Pennywise’s influence. Initially, his eyes become askew, morphing from those of a young boy to those of a maniacal extraterrestrial clown. Then, his protruding teeth evoke memories of Pennywise’s iconic, malevolent grin. Following that, a new character showcases a more significant display of Pennywise’s might.
The baby with bat wings exudes a strong Pennywise vibe.
The mother of this sinister family gives birth to a ghastly two-headed monster baby with bat wings. And while that’s certainly bizarre, it visually connects to both films. To begin with, the Muschiettis’ portrayal of Pennywise diverged significantly from the Tim Curry interpretation, which was more in line with classic Bozo-style clowns. The Muschiettis chose a Victorian aesthetic in attire and a Kewpie-doll head, marked by an enormous forehead reminiscent of a baby doll. Thus, that dual-headed creature should remind viewers of Skarsgård’s Pennywise, even before this chilling cold open drags us into the sewer, chasing after Matty’s lost pacifier.
Beyond the large-headed design, the baby recalls another forerunner of Pennywise. A similar grotesque creature emerged from a fortune cookie and scuttled around the table at the Chinese restaurant in IT: Chapter Two. It resembled a spider with a doll head, while another fortune cookie unleashed a bat wing. Therefore, long before the Losers Club faced this nightmare, the children of Derry in 1962 were witnessing it with fresh terror.
IT: Welcome to Derry echoes the vanishing of Georgie.
When Matty goes missing, his classmates Teddy and Phil (Mikkal Karim-Fidler and Jack Molloy Legault) squabble over what might have happened to him. “They never found a body,” one insists, suggesting he’s not dead but has run away.
This was true for Bill’s younger sibling, Georgie Denbrough, as well. He vanished without a body being discovered, which fueled Bill’s obsession with searching the sewers.
Another Georgie reference surfaces before the end of the first episode. But let’s address these in chronological order, shall we?
Voices from the drain terrorize traumatized kids.
Poor “Loony” Lilly (Clara Stack) already has enough on her plate, including the horrific accidental death of her father and the relentless Pattycakes taunting her about it with a pickle prank. Then, while in the bathroom all alone, she hears Matty’s voice calling from the tub’s drain.
Singing “We’ve got trouble” in a playful manner, he is referencing the movie he watched at the theater before his ill-fated hitchhiking. “Ya Got Trouble” from The Music Man takes on a sinister tone as Matty sings it to signal that he has been abducted (and possibly killed) by Pennywise.
Of course, Lilly is unaware of this murderous clown at this point. However, this moment evokes the scene in which Beverly Marsh in IT heard the voices of three of Pennywise’s victims calling her from the bathroom sink. While Bev was assaulted by surging hair and a flood of blood, Lilly sees two severed, bloody fingers creep their way towards her. But Lilly struggles more to convince her classmates of what she witnessed than Bev did. Phil and Teddy require