Welcome to Derry Teases Pennywise’s True Form & Origins (but Must Avoid 1 IT Mistake)

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The new series, Welcome to Derry, was initially promoted as a story about the origins of Pennywise the Dancing Clown (played by Bill Skarsgård). However, the first episode centered on the creation of a new group of young heroes – the Losers’ Club – and a hidden Air Force base near the town of Derry, Maine. The second episode starts to explain why the military is there, revealing a secret operation with a surprising purpose. This shift in focus suggests the series will delve into the deeper, more cosmic side of the creature, potentially avoiding a major flaw found in the recent IT movies.

Warning: Spoilers below for IT: Welcome to Derry, Episode 2

The second episode of IT: Welcome to Derry reveals Operation Precept, a secret military project led by General Shaw (James Remar). Shaw and his team know about the strange, supernatural events happening in Derry, and they believe the creature is terrifying enough to kill someone instantly. During the Cold War, the U.S. military saw this creature as a potentially devastating psychological weapon. Operation Precept’s aim is to find, capture, and control Pennywise, hoping to give America an advantage. This investigation into the creature’s origins will likely reveal important details about where it came from, giving the series a chance to improve upon the unsatisfying ending of IT: Chapter Two.

What Is Pennywise’s True Form in Stephen King’s Book?

In Stephen King’s novel, the creature known as It is something humans can’t truly comprehend. It comes from a dimension outside our universe, a vast emptiness King calls the Macroverse. In its original form, It is a swirling mass of energy called the Deadlights. These lights are so strange and terrifying that looking at them would instantly drive a person insane or kill them.

This means the creature’s appearances in our world, like Pennywise the Clown, are just disguises. The spider the Losers fight isn’t its real form, but the closest thing their minds can imagine to represent something so old, powerful, and full of terrifying qualities. It’s like a mental translation, simplifying the truly unimaginable into something they can actually confront.

The creature known as ‘It’ is fundamentally a metaphysical being, and this is central to the novel’s dramatic finale, the Ritual of Chüd. This ritual isn’t a physical fight, but a psychic battle taking place on a different plane of existence. Bill Denbrough is guided by Maturin, a powerful, ancient turtle god who opposes It, and learns that to defeat It, he must confront it using its own methods. The Ritual involves Bill focusing his willpower to psychically attack It’s core, which pulls him into the terrifying ‘Deadlights’ – a realm at the center of the universe. There, he must rely on the strength of his childhood memories and imagination to fight. Later, the adult members of the Losers Club repeat this dangerous ritual, with Richie Tozier joining Bill, ultimately destroying It’s essence.

Can IT: Welcome to Derry Redeem the Second Movie?

As a big Stephen King fan, I was really disappointed with IT: Chapter Two. It felt like the movie completely missed the point of what made the story so terrifying. Instead of focusing on the abstract, psychological horror that King is known for, it turned into a typical monster movie. The final form of It – this huge spider-like Pennywise – just didn’t work for me. It took something truly unknowable and cosmic and made it a CGI creature you could simply fight. That removed all the existential dread, and honestly, it wasn’t scary anymore. It felt like they took King’s really ambitious ideas and just turned them into a generic, uninspired spectacle.

The film greatly simplified Stephen King’s complex story, especially when portraying the Ritual of Chüd. All of the ritual’s spiritual and psychological depth was removed. The movie left out key elements like the journey into another dimension, the mental battle with the creature, and the important guidance of the turtle, Maturin. Instead, the climax showed the heroes defeating the monster by simply believing it was weak and insignificant. What was a powerful psychic duel became a scene of the grown-up characters yelling at the creature, essentially bullying it until it shrank and they could destroy its heart.

Now, the series Welcome to Derry has a great opportunity to get things right. By focusing on a military operation designed to understand and capture Pennywise, the show can logically explore the creature’s backstory. This investigation, called Operation Precept, allows it to delve into the stranger parts of Stephen King’s mythology, like the Macroverse and the true nature of the Deadlights. This approach lets the show capture the book’s sense of cosmic horror, showing Pennywise’s power through psychological distress, disturbing visions, and the gradual breakdown of those trying to study it. This would finally do justice to the overwhelming evil that is central to King’s story.

New episodes of IT: Welcome to Derry premiere on HBO every Sunday. 

We’re curious – what revelations are you hoping the military discovers about Pennywise? Share your thoughts in the comments and join the discussion on the ComicBook Forum!

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2025-11-01 16:22