The otherworldly being lives deep within the foundations of Derry, Maine, a town cursed with his pervasive evil and a frequent setting in King's canon. Pennywise emerges every 27 years to feast on Derry's children, and this time he's set his sights on the Losers Club.
After the amount of physical damage he took from the combined and emboldened Losers, Pennywise had to retreat to the bowels beneath Derry to go back to slumber and regenerate for 27 years.
The character is an ancient, shape-shifting, trans-dimensional evil entity who preys upon the children (and sometimes adults) of Derry, Maine, roughly every 27 years, using a variety of powers that include the ability of shapeshifting and manipulation of reality.
History. 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 25-28 year hibernation, waking to kill and eat.
They determine that It appears as their individual worst fears, awakening every 27 years to feed on the children of Derry before resuming hibernation, and moves about by using the sewer lines, which all lead to an old stone well hidden under an abandoned house on Neibolt Street.
Pennywise is just a mask, an act that It uses when convenient. It is the real monster behind the monster. If you want to get technical, It is an alien, but It's origin goes well beyond that. It is actually an ancient cosmic deity.
Long answer: Pennywise is just another form used by the real creature. IT is the Deadlights, which are a sentinent, soul consuming energy. Very little is revealed about IT's true origins, even in the novel, as most information is either speculation from the Losers Club or a lie IT told to frighten them.
Unfortunately, King's imagination ran a little wilder than alluded to in the movies or earlier in the books, and the consequence of that is a pregnant Pennywise.
In the novel, it's explained that Pennywise targets children because their fears are less complex than those of adults, allowing It to easily take the shape of whatever its victim fears.
He arrived to earth in ancient times to feed on fear. It takes the form of what his victims fear such as the painting for Stan or Beverly's dad. Bob Gray was a human being who traveled in the circus and his stage name was Pennywise, the dancing clown.
1935: IT awakens after the Bradley Gang shootout. 1962: IT awakens when the The Black Spot is burned down by a cult. 1989: IT awakens to eat kids for a year before going into hibernation. Georgie Denbrough dies by Pennywise biting his arm off and dragging him into the sewers.
Making Pennywise IT's go-to form wasn't a random decision from King, who initially envisioned the creature as a troll like the one in the story “Three Billy Goats Gruff”, but later changed it to a clown as he realized that children hate clowns more than trolls.
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.
It describes that it prefers to kill and devour children, not by nature, rather because children's fears are easier to interpret in a physical form and thus children are easier to fill with terror, which It says is akin to marinating the meat.
He is also a mentioned character in 11/22/63. He was the youngest of the seven members of The Losers' Club, and the only member Pennywise is afraid of.
At some point in the novel, King explained part of IT's backstory but left enough of it untold to raise many questions about it, and everything about Pennywise's origins is a bit confusing, as it's connected to the macroverse and the turtle Maturin, who's the only being IT is afraid of.
It says on the novel, Pennywise's daughter is Mrs Kersh. Mrs Kersh happened when Beverley Marsh visit her old home in Derry. Mrs kersh said : My father used to work in a circus. His name was Mr Robert Gray aka Mr Bob Gray aka Penywise the dancing clown.
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.
Answer and Explanation: No, Stephen King's It is not based on a true story. King had the idea for It when looking at an old wooden walking bridge in 1978 near his home in Boulder, Colorado.
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.
It as Pennywise to the Loser's Club. It, also more commonly known by its favorite form as Pennywise the Dancing Clown (or simply Pennywise), is the secondary antagonist of the Stephen King Mythos.
While this version of It is currently Pure Evil just like the novel and the TV miniseries incarnations, there's a slight possibility that this may change once Welcome to Derry, an upcoming HBO Max prequel show about its origins set in the 1960s is released, as the series will delve into its backstory.
Originally Answered: Is the clown in “It” real? Nowhere in the original novel, the miniseries or the movies is it suggestioned that IT's form as Pennywise is based on a real clown, in fact intrbiews for the movies specify that “Pennywise” is only what IT thinks clowns are like.
