An IT Prequel Can Finally Explain A Major Pennywise Victim Mystery

The universe of Stephen King’s It is expanding with a prequel TV series titled Welcome to Derry, which promises to unravel a major mystery about Pennywise and its victims. Stephen King has terrified generations with his novels, and It, published in 1986, remains one of his most terrifying works. The story of It and its victims has been adapted into a miniseries and a film duology, but there’s still much to learn about this peculiar creature and its operations.

It is an evil, shapeshifting entity originating from a void containing and surrounding the universe. It feeds on the fears of its victims and takes the shape of those fears to terrorize them. Its preferred form is Pennywise the Dancing Clown, which it uses to haunt children, its favorite victims. While It also targets adults, a mystery remains about why It predominantly preys on children—a mystery that a prequel could easily solve.

The Need to Explain Why Pennywise Kills Kids

The Losers Club looks up in the movie It.

Little is known about It‘s backstory, allowing writers and filmmakers the freedom to explore why It operates the way it does. What is known is that Pennywise comes from the Macroverse, is the natural enemy of Maturin the Turtle, and its true form can drive a human insane. It arrived on Earth in a massive cataclysmic event similar to an asteroid impact. It has lived in the sewers of Derry, Maine, for centuries, following a 27-year hibernation pattern, waking up to kill and eat. During Pennywise’s awakening, a series of child murders and disappearances occur all over town, but adults rarely take them seriously or take action.

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 the victim fears. To achieve this, Pennywise surely had to test its abilities and approach to its victims in Derry, which is what a prequel could explore. Witnessing how Pennywise perfected its modus operandi and learned that children are easier targets than adults would be both fascinating and terrifying, while also expanding on the mysterious backstory of this creature.

Exploring Pennywise’s Early Years

Bill Skarsgård as young Pennywise.

The TV series Welcome to Derry will serve as a prequel to the movies It and It Chapter Two, reportedly set in the 1960s. While it will explore the origin story of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, it might not delve deeply into the creature’s early years. An It prequel could go beyond Pennywise’s origins (briefly teased in It Chapter Two during a sequence where the creature terrorizes an adult Bev) to show how It perfected its skills and chose children as its main victims, eventually adopting Pennywise as its preferred form.

There’s immense potential in It and Pennywise, thanks to the many mysteries of its backstory and place in King’s Macroverse. However, this also presents a significant challenge. Expanding Pennywise’s backstory and exploring its early years must be done in a way that remains consistent with what the novel and movies have established while preserving what has made Pennywise such a terrifying villain for decades.

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