2017 film and 2019 sequel: King stated in a 2013 interview that he came up with the idea for Pennywise after asking himself what children feared "more than anything else in the world", and feeling that the answer was clowns.
Ultimately, Stephen King's inspiration for Pennywise was derived from an array of sources ranging from real-life murders to far less sinister clowns. At the end of the day, his main reason for making the central creature of IT a clown was his own fear of them.
In the novel, It's origins are nebulous. He took the form of a clown most frequently, Mr. Bob Gray or Pennywise, but his true form is an ancient eldritch entity from another universe who landed in the town that would become Derry by way of an asteroid and first awoke in 1715.
As many as billions of years old, Pennywise originated in a realm outside the known universe called the “Macroverse.” Though not confirmed, it's been suggested in the “Dark Tower” series that Pennywise was created by a being known as “the Other,” which may be the godlike figure known as Gan, who is also the embodiment ...
The backstory of Pennywise is tied to an ancient cosmic entity referred to as the "It" or the "Eater of Worlds." This entity is from another dimension and has existed for an extremely long time. It comes to Earth approximately every 27 years to prey on the children of Derry.
Stephen King's IT introduced readers to a one-of-a-kind creature that can take any form, the most common one being Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and as menacing as it is, this creature has one big enemy it's truly scared of: Maturin, the turtle.
In both the book and the films, It is an ancient alien creature, older than civilization, and in King's novel, older than our universe. It feasts on the flesh of humans simply because our fears are easy to manifest and they make us taste better.
The movies have a different approach when it comes to the Pennywise the clown origin story, with IT's name being Robert "Bob" Gray. In IT: Chapter 2, there is a lengthy exposition section explaining the origins of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. There was a human Pennywise the Dancing Clown, but IT just takes his form.
Movie! Flashback of the past of Pennywise and his. Daughter Kersh 🤗 Of when IT became & took over. Pennywise the Dancing Clown better known as Bob. Gray.
It can manipulate weak-willed people, making them indifferent to the horrific events that unfold, or even serve as accomplices. In the novel, It claims that its true name is Robert "Bob" Gray, but decided to be named “It”. Throughout the book, It is generally referred to as male, usually appearing as Pennywise.
Pennywise offers Georgie his boat back, but when Georgie attempts to reach out to it, Pennywise grabs Georgie's arm and bites it off, leaving Georgie to bleed to death in the rain.
IT is a shape-shifting creature known as a Glamour who is billions of years old. Although it lived on planet Earth for many years, Pennywise originated in a void/dimension outside the regions of space known as the Macroverse.
The number is then multiplied by the number of times Pennywise has awakened -- once every 27 years throughout the 270-year history of Derry, equaling ten times -- to come up with a final tally of between 12,000 and 18,000 dead.
In their final battle, the Losers' Club was able to kill Pennywise by reducing him to a child-like form as they overcame their fears. In the moments before Pennywise died, his fear is reminiscent of Georgie's own, therefore closing the cyclical nature of Pennywise's murders.
Sometimes, but mostly no. Pennywise's illusions can be very real, even if the person next to you is experiencing something completely different. Even moreso, these physical illusions can gain or lose power depending on whether you believe it and how strong your imagination is or how hard It is trying.
This cycle is finally completed and forever closed when Pennywise is killed. Thus, the franchise begins and ends with the death of a child: in Georgie's case, an actual, innocent child, and in Pennywise's, the reduction of a horrifying entity to a sad, small, hopeless thing.
And if his victim believes him to be powerless, he will become powerless. And so the group figures out that their best bet is, essentially, to bully the bully: They mock Pennywise, telling him he isn't scary. Humiliated, Pennywise begins to shrink, transforming into an almost Benjamin Button–like, melted clown-baby.
Kersh tells Beverly she's the daughter of a carnival worker who happens to look just like Pennywise. As explained in Stephen King's IT, this man is Bob Gray — and IT, that pesky inter-dimensional force of evil, stole his likeness. For 85-year-old Gregson, the character of Mrs. Kersh was initially even more mystifying.
IT arrived on Earth through an event similar to an asteroid impact, landing in what would later become Derry, Maine. Once there, IT adopted its usual pattern of hibernation that lasted between 27 and 30 years, awakening to kill and eat and then going back to sleep.
Martin Morgan Pennwise is (biologically) asexual and has the ability to reproduce. Therefore even though King describes pennywise as a female further into the book, 'IT' is (technically) neither male nor female.
Throughout Stephen King's It, Pennywise is referred to as a male, but author Stephen King pulled a fast one on readers in the It book ending by revealing the creature's true form was a pregnant spider, implying that it is, in fact, biologically female.
They reach the conclusion that Pennywise has all of the adults under some sort of spell that prohibits them from seeing him. The adults of Derry are shown to be villainous in their own right as well. The adults of Derry are shown to be true villains of the story in the same way as Pennywise.
[Stephen King's IT] Why doesn't Pennywise go after adults the way he goes after kids? Pennywise's deal is that he strikes fear into the hearts of others before devouring them, as essentially fattening them up before he feasts.
If you read the book and seen IT Chapter 2, you would know that Pennywise is only the physical avatar that belongs to a much larger cosmic entity. What Pennywise actually eats or feeds off of,is Fear.
