Summary
The news that Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise will return inWelcome To Derryis great, butIT’s iconic villain must avoid a Stephen King adaptation mistake. When theITprequelWelcome to Derrywas first announced in 2022, the news was met with a mix of enthusiasm and understandable trepidation.IT: Chapter Two’s endingwas far from perfect, but it was hard to argue that the overlong sequel needed even more screen time to flesh out its shape-shifting villain’s story. Theorigins of Pennywise the Monster Clownweren’t entirely clear, but this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
TheITmovies focused on their human heroes more than Pennywise and this worked in their favor. WhenIT: Chapter Twodevoted more screen time to Pennywise’s antics than the lives of the Losers Club, the movie earned significantly worse reviews than its 2017 predecessor. As such, it was hard to see howIT’s spinoff show could make a prequel work. The monster clown’s defeat inIT: Chapter Twobrought its story to a definitive end, but his beginnings were trickier. Pennywise’s canonical origins date back to the beginning of time and were too trippy and existential to realize onscreen.
Bill Skarsgård’s Welcome To Derry Return Is Great News
Recasting The Iconic Villain’s Actor Would Have Been Difficult
It would have been hard for the show’s creators to makeWelcome to Derryfeel like an extension of the movies without the same version of Pennywise at its center.
Fortunately, the news thatBill Skarsgård will return as Pennywise inWelcome to Derrymeans the series can recapture the atmosphere of the original movie adaptations. Recasting Pennywise would have been a tall order for the series and, whenSkarsgård denied a role inWelcome to Derry, it seemed as if this was the show’s only option. Even if a new actor had somehow succeeded in making their Pennywise as good as Skarsgård’s, it would have been hard for the show’s creators to makeWelcome to Derryfeel like an extension of the movies without the same villain at its center.
SinceWelcome to Derryis a prequel, the series was already unable to bring back the main cast ofITor IT: Chapter Two. This left only Pennywise and the titular town as the connective tissue between the two projects.Welcome to Derrywas almost certainly doomed to feel like expensive fan fiction without Skarsgård’s Pennywise since, while the sets might have looked the same, the main monster of the series wouldn’t be present. Now, Bill Skarsgård’s involvement means that viewers can breathe a sigh of relief. The actor’s return does, however, cause another potential problem for the show’s plot.
Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise Can’t Be Welcome To Derry’s Main Focus
The IT Villain Worked Precisely Because of His Limited Screentime
Pennywise doesn’t have calculated motives, nevermind feelings, so it doesn’t make for a compelling protagonist in its own right.
Ironically,Skarsgård’s return doesn’t mean Pennywise can play a main role inWelcome to Derrysince the villain works best in small doses.Welcome to Derrycould improve Pennywise, but the show can’t make him the main character. Pennywise’s many attacks on the Losers Club might form some ofITandIT: Chapter Two’s most memorable scenes, but these moments only worked because viewers cared about the kids themselves. The Losers Club is the real focus of Stephen King’s story, not the villain they defeat.Welcome to Derryneeds to remember this now that Bill Skarsgård is back.
Pennywise can’t beWelcome to Derry’s main focus because the killer clown isn’t the sort of anti-villain who needs a series devoted to their backstory. This can work for characters like the Joker or Cruella De Vil, whose origin stories offer new insight into their sympathetic motives. Pennywise is an ageless eldritch being composed of pure evil. It doesn’t have calculated motives, nevermind feelings, so it doesn’t make for a compelling protagonist in its own right. Instead, Pennywise works as a villain because it takes the shape of each hero’s greatest fear, thus illustrating more about their characters.
Welcome To Derry’s Protagonists Have A Tough Task
The Show’s Stars Must Be Compelling Despite Their Fate
Since the show is a prequel,viewers already know thatWelcome to Derry’s heroes don’t vanquish Pennywise. This creates a challenge for the series since it will be hard to make their failed endeavor compelling.Pennywise’s eventualIT: Chapter Twodefeatonly occurs after the monster has been fed on the people of Derry for hundreds of years, soWelcome to Derry’s protagonists can’t succeed in taking down the villain for good. They may try valiantly to defeat Skarsgård’s monster and this could be an exciting story, but viewers already know that Pennywise will return to Derry in the ‘80s and the 2010s.
Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise Can Only Get Welcome To Derry So Far
The IT Movies Relied On Pennywise’s Many Incarnations
Throughout the original movies, Pennywise became a grotesque leper, a creepy old woman, a talking severed head, a painting, a werewolf, various reanimated corpses, and a statue, among other forms.
Although it is great to hear that Bill Skarsgård will return for the series, it is important to recall thatWelcome to Derrystill needs Pennywise’s many other forms. Throughout the original movies, Pennywise became a grotesque leper, a creepy old woman, a talking severed head, a painting, a werewolf, various reanimated corpses, and a statue, among other forms. For the villain to remain as scary as ever,Welcome to Derry’s Pennywise needs to take on as many forms as he did in the movies. Ironically, this might mean that Skarsgård’s clown himself won’t appear onscreen all that often.
Welcome To Derry Could Make Skarsgård’s Pennywise Work Again
The Prequel Can Be A Darker Spin On IT’s World
Welcome to Derrycould still succeed if the show leans into the in-built tragedy of its pre-ordained plot, and Pennywise could be scarier than ever since viewers know he survives.Pennywise’s many forms in theITmoviesprove that viewers haven’t seen the extent of the shape-shifting monster’s powers, and the fact that he isn’t permanently defeated in Welcome to Derry doesn’t necessarily mean the story will be relentlessly downbeat. 2017’sITends with the heroes vaguely aware that they haven’t gotten rid the monster forever, but the movie remains a satisfying self-contained story despite this apparent limitation.
Derry’s history of racism is under-explored in the overstuffed movies, whereasWelcome to Derryhas the screen time required to do this story justice. Viewers could finally find out how much of Derry’s nightmarish history is a result of Pennywise’s malignant influence and how much is the responsibility of its citizens. In the process,Welcome to Derrycould complement and complicateIT’s story magnificentlyif the series approaches its prequel status right. However, this will mean refusing to rely on Skarsgård’s presence as Pennywise asIT’s prequelWelcome to Derryexplores the eponymous town and its dark history.
