Bill Skarsgard Promises A More Vicious Pennywise In IT Chapter Two

Bill Skarsgard in It

Clowns are scary. This is an empirical fact and anybody that disagrees is wrong. This is why Stephen King's novel It was so utterly terrifying and why the movie of the same name became one of the highest grossing horror movies ever made. However, if you thought that the forthcoming sequel would just be another installment of "scary clown theater" you'd be wrong.

Bill Skarsgard, who plays Pennywise the clown, says that his character in It Chapter Two is going to be even more terrifying the second time around.

He’s inflicted fear on his prey, and he’s very focused on fear, but he’s never experienced it himself. Now he’s experienced something that he has been inflicting on others and … there’s a shift leading into the second movie. It fuels hatred and anger towards the kids, who will be adults in this one, so I think there might be an even more vicious Pennywise. He’s really going after it

At the end of It, the band of kids that had been terrorized by Pennywise are able to turn the tables on him and get the upper hand. They drive the monster away, but they don't actually destroy him. This is something that they don't actually realize until many years later when the same terrible things that were happening in their hometown when they were children begin to happen again.

Only this time, based on what Bill Skarsgard tells EW, it seems Pennywise is pissed. He doesn't just want to make the kids fear him, he has it out for them for what they did to him before. It's not shocking to think an embodiment of evil is capable of holding a grudge.

And of course, Pennywise has to become a bigger threat in It Chapter Two because it has to make sense that the creature that the group defeated as children is somehow still a threat to them as adults. You'd think if they could do it once, they could do it again.

In the original Stephen King novel, the story jumps back and forth between time periods, so you don't really know what happened to Pennywise the first time around when you're reading the book. The movie audience will be sitting down knowing the character was beaten once, which will likely require the sequel to take a slightly different tact in order to raise the tension.

IT was a massive success when it came out. That success led to the sequel being given the green light in the first place. With most of the team that made the first film returning, both in front and behind the camera, as well as the addition of new actors like Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy, it seems It Chapter Two is looking to be another big success.

If you're a fan. keep your eyes on CinemaBlend later today, as the first trailer for IT Chapter Two is scheduled to drop in just a couple hours.

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.