Stephen King has created plenty of characters with the ability to unnerve, terrify, and even endear themselves to audience across multiple generations. Yet this is one character that should be able to scare more than most thanks to an ability to become fear itself to anyone who crosses paths with it. It could be a werewolf, a leper, the thing under the bed, or an abusive father. Most of all though, it could be a clown called Pennywise. Now, following the surprise release of a new IT: Welcome to Derry episode for Halloween, both the series and Andy Muschietti’s 2017 IT movie have crept into the HBO Max streaming chart to prove that there is nothing like a good scary clown to continually pull in a crowd. While we may have a little while to wait for the full return of the series for its second season, we haven’t had to wait as long as Derry to see Pennywise returning from his sleep and terrorize streaming all over again.
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IT is one of King’s largest and most iconic novels. The story of an evil entity known as IT, which every 27 years comes out of its slumber to feast on the children of Derry, Maine. To help the creature lure in its prey, it takes on the form of a jovial clown, Bob Gray aka Pennywise, but has the ability to turn into anything that scares its victim and helps feed IT’s need for fear. Having been made into a TV mini-series in 1990 starring Tim Curry in the role of the killer clown, a serendipitous 27 years later, the story was brought back to life on the big screen with Bill Skarsgard delivering a more visceral Pennywise to make another generation afraid of clowns. The movie became one of the biggest horror movies of all time andIT: Chapter Two completed King’s story two years later. Anyone who thought that was it for Pennywise should really know better because it was not long before everyone was getting down with the clown again in his own prequel series.
IT: Welcome to Derry Expands on King’s Universe
While the reboot of IT was a huge success, with the two movies making just under $1.2 billion between them, the announcement of a new TV tie-in series came as a big surprise to many fans. Although skeptical about how exactly the show would be able to continue the story of Pennywise beyond the book became clear when it was revealed that it would take the form of a prequel series, with each new season peeling back another layer of IT’s years in Derry starting 27 years before the events of the first movie. For those who have read King’s novel, the events are not completely new, as it took direct inspiration from “interludes” in the book, short chapters that gave a brief history of Derry’s association with traumatic events that all seemed to be instigated by IT. Season 1 of IT: Welcome to Derry arrived on HBO Max in October 2025, receiving mostly positive reviews and the third highest debut on the platform behind House of the Dragonand The Last of Us. What is more, the series grew its audience week on week, ending with a finale audience of over 6.5 million viewers.
Now, fans are waiting for the next chapter in IT’s history, which will go back to the 1930s and find Pennywise wreaking havoc for a whole new generation of Derry residents. This Halloween an unexpected new episode was released, going all the way back to IT’s arrival on Earth, and delivering a short contained story to help take away the pain of having to wait up to another 18 months for Season 2 to arrive. But, good things come to those who wait, and if your bag is a murderous clown causing chaos and terror wherever it goes, then IT: Welcome to Derry is going to be worth the wait. In the meantime, all iterations of Pennywise can be found on HBO Max.
Are you excited for IT: Welcome to Derry Season 2? Let us know in the comments.
It’s Pennywise Has a Major Connection to Another Stephen King Villain (And They’ve Never Appeared in a Movie)
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