Bill Skarsgård Teases Pennywise's Future After IT: Welcome To Derry Twist Ending

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Grant Hermanns is a TV News Editor, Interview Host and Reviewer for ScreenRant, having joined the team in early 2021. He got his start in the industry with Moviepilot, followed by working at ComingSoon.net. When not indulging in his love of film/TV, Grant is making his way through his gaming backlog and exploring the world of Dungeons & Dragons with friends.

While he may have been briefly defeated in the season 1 finale, Bill Skarsgård is ready to suit up for Pennywise in IT: Welcome to Derry's future. Co-created by Andy and Barbara Muschietti and co-showrunner Jason Fuchs, the HBO series saw Skarsgård reprise his role as the iconic monster clown from Muschietti's film adaptations of Stephen King's novel, albeit in a different setting as it was set in 1962. In addition to showing him hunting and feeding on a different set of young protagonists, Welcome to Derry also offered more of Pennywise's origins.

Now, in an interview with ScreenRant's Grant Hermanns for the wide release of his acclaimed crime biopic Dead Man's Wire, Skarsgård offered a tease of Pennywise's future in IT: Welcome to Derry. While reflecting on playing the Bob Gray iteration of the character in a flashback scene to 1908, which Skarsgård describes as being "this kind of drunk, has-been clown" before having his form taken by IT, the star found himself surprised at the "layers" he and the creative team were finding with the character and teased there being more to come:

Bill Skarsgård: I think that the scene where Bob Gray is talking to IT as the child was the one that I think we had some of the most fun with. We just laughed at a lot of things that came out and things that we improvised and stuff. That scene is very different from the sort of, "[In over-the-top Pennywise voice] Oh my darling, I love you," the scene he has with his daughter. So I thought it was like, "Okay, well, there might be layers to this guy." And who knows, we might see more of him in the future.

Skarsgård's comments come after IT: Welcome to Derry's twist ending teased the show's roadmap for future seasons tackling Pennywise's prior feeding cycles on the town. Having pulled aside Matilda Lawler's Marge from her group during their efforts to restore the cage keeping him in the town, Pennywise revealed he experiences time differently and sees past, present and future all at once. While initially relieved at his defeat, Marge and Lilly expressed their concerns about his using his knowledge to prevent his death in IT Chapter Two and potentially even their existences.

This serves as a seamless way to continue the creative team's plans for each subsequent season going backwards in time, with plans for IT: Welcome to Derry season 2 to be set in 1935 and focus on the Bradley Gang massacre, while season 3 would go back to 1908. Considering season 1 also confirmed when exactly IT took on the Pennywise moniker, there is certainly plenty of opportunity for Skarsgård to return, and to explore more of how he became a reclusive creature in Derry's sewers rather than a confident "Eater of Worlds," as he often claims to be.

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The one thing that currently appears to be holding back Skarsgård from another Pennywise outing is that HBO has yet to renew IT: Welcome to Derry for another season. Having premiered with the third-most-watched debut on HBO Max, behind House of the Dragon and The Last of Us and its season 1 finale being the show's most-watched episode, the ratings are certainly in its favor to get season 2 greenlit. Furthermore, both critics and audiences were largely in favor of the show, netting it near-identical Rotten Tomatoes scores of 81% and 82% from both.

The more likely factor for IT: Welcome to Derry's lack of a renewal at the time of writing is the impending sale of HBO, HBO Max, and multiple other Warner Bros. Discovery properties to Netflix. Paramount Skydance has been avidly attempting to overtake Netflix's bid, to the point of a new lawsuit to get full details on its financials to see how they can outbid the streamer, as such leaving the fate of many titles unclear while WB weighs its best option. Regardless of the outcome, the established plans for IT: Welcome to Derry's return, Skarsgård's own interest in finding more layers to Pennywise, and its solid ratings should be enough of a foundation for a greenlight in the future.

Be sure to dive into our other IT: Welcome to Derry season 1 coverage with: