Fine, Bill Skarsgård will come back as Pennywise for Max’s It prequel show

Just when you thought it was safe to go tromping around in clown-spider-infested sewers again—which, let’s be honest, you never should have thought, ever—Bill Skarsgård is bringing back Pennywise. The It star followed up his recent Esquire cover story with news that he’ll be coming back to one of his spookiest of roles, playing the thing that lives underneath a seemingly idyllic Maine town in upcoming Max series Welcome To Derry.

This isn’t, as it happens, the first time Skarsgard has starred in a Stephen King TV adaptation; the actor previously co-starred in Hulu series Castle Rock as “The Kid,” a mysterious character with links to the cross-novel wackiness happening in that two-season show. Now he’s reuniting with It and It Chapter Two director Andy Muschietti for the new series, with Muschietti (co-producing with sister Barbara) directing four of the nine planned episodes of the series. Plot details on the series are sketchy at this early date, but readers of King’s 1986 novel will know that Pennywise The Dancing Clown (or some other avatar for the creature lurking underneath Derry’s blackened heart) had quite a track record of awful deeds well before The Losers Club entered his sights in the summer of 1958.

Welcome To Derry was announced back in 2022, and has picked up a steady little pack of stars, including Taylour Paige, Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, and James Remar. It was an open question whether Skarsgard, who recently starred in Boy Kills World and John Wick: Chapter Four—and whose upcoming credits include The Crow and Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu—would return to reprise the role as the show’s iconic antagonist. (In fact, it was kind of a closed question, since Skarsgård had said at least once that he wasn’t involved, lightly suggesting that creators should try to find a new angle on the character.) But that was then, this is now, etc.; get ready for more Pennywise when the show eventually makes its way to Max.