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Five years after the release of It Chapter Two, we’re returning to Pennywise’s world. HBO is bringing us a TV show based on Stephen King’s beloved book in 2025 titled It: Welcome to Derry, which will see Bill Skarsgard reprising his role as Pennywise, having previously played the part in the It films. While much remains mysterious about the show, the actor has confirmed that the show won’t be pulling any punches. It’s, in fact, going to be pretty hardcore.
Skarsgard was a guest on the most recent episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast to promote his new movie Nosferatu, which had itself a nice weekend at the box office, it’s worth noting Host Josh Horowitz, at one point, asked the actor if Welcome to Derry will be as scary as the films. Skarsgard’s answer was pretty blunt. “It’s pretty hardcore, man,” he said. “It’s not the G-rated Pennywise, ” Horowitz quipped back, to which Skarsgard replied, “No, that would be a no.”
For quite some time, Skarsgard’s involvement in the series was left uncertain. It seemed like he might not come back at all. But, at long last, in May of this year, it was confirmed that he would indeed be coming back as Pennywise for the show. So, why the hesitation? The actor explained that he was looking to put the “playing monsters” part of his career behind him.
“I felt like I was done with it, in a way. It was also because I was shooting [Nosferatu], I was doing Orlok. To me it just felt like this is the nail in the coffin on my monster roles. Pun intended. I did feel like I was kind of over it and wanted to do different things. The Pennywise thing as well, I’ve been quite defined by it.”
It was Andy and Barbara Muschietti, the director and producer of the It films, who Skarsgard called “like family,” who managed to convince him to return. To help sweeten the pot, Skarsgard also serves as an executive producer, meaning he has some actual skin in the game aside from his on-screen participation. Speaking further, Skarsgard revealed that he enjoyed his return to this universe more than he originally thought he would.
“It was fun. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, actually, and there’s parts of it where we got to explore sides of old Pennywise that we haven’t seen. And that’s fun. I remembered how much I enjoy working with Andy and we do have a lot of fun together. I think there’s some cool stuff in there that we haven’t seen that I’m excited for the people to watch and enjoy hopefully.”
The new cast for the series is led byu Taylour Paige (Zola, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Jovan Adepo (Babylon, Watchmen), Chris Chalk (Perry Mason, Godzilla vs. Kong) and James Remar (Creepshow, Oppenheimer). As for the story at hand? HBO is playing it pretty coy but the brief synopsis for the show reads as follows:
“Set in the world of Stephen King’s It universe, It: Welcome to Derry is based on King’s It novel and expands the vision established by filmmaker Andy Muschietti in the feature films It and It Chapter Two.”
It: Welcome to Derry is set to premiere sometime in 2025 on HBO and Max. For more, check out the latest batch of photos from the show right here.
