It’s Pennywise Has a Major Connection to Another Stephen King Villain (And They’ve Never Appeared in a Movie)

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The HBO and Warner Bros. series Welcome to Derry got off to a strong start, and it’s also boosting Stephen King’s popularity. The show’s detailed backstory of Pennywise the Clown has sparked a lot of interest, leading many fans to explore the connections between all of Stephen King’s books and discover that they share a single, unified universe.

A key detail from Stephen King’s stories was subtly introduced in the first season of Welcome to Derry – something especially exciting for dedicated fans. The show offered the first on-screen clues that Pennywise is linked to The Dark Tower and a powerful villain who appears throughout much of King’s work.

Pennywise Is Connected to Stephen King’s Biggest Villain

Often appearing as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, this being is thought to originate from the Macroverse, a dimension in Stephen King’s stories that houses powerful entities like “The Turtle” and “The Other.” King’s novel, The Dark Tower, also suggests Pennywise has a connection to another incredibly powerful, evil being: The Crimson King.

Who Is Stephen King’s Crimson King?

The Crimson King isn’t simply the villain of The Dark Tower series; he’s become widely known as the source of all evil throughout Stephen King’s entire multiverse and all of his connected stories. Briefly, he’s the illegitimate son of Arthur Eld, an ancient and powerful warrior who protected the Dark Tower (the center of all realities) and inspired the King Arthur legends. Arthur Eld had a child with a demonic creature called the Crimson Queen, who came from the primordial darkness that existed before the Tower brought light into being. That child was the Crimson King, a being with immense power who is determined to destroy the Dark Tower and reshape reality into a dark reflection of the ancient Prim.

Although the Crimson King doesn’t show up in many books (mostly the later ones in The Dark Tower series), hints about him—mentions of his existence or the plans he’s making—appear as early as 1984 in Stephen King’s novel Insomnia. This means King has been subtly building up this villain throughout his career, and he keeps coming back to him again and again.

How Is Pennywise Connected to The Crimson King?

Stephen King never explicitly connects Pennywise and the Crimson King in his stories, but there’s a lot of indirect evidence suggesting a relationship between them.

In Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series, the villainous Crimson King is connected to the “Deadlights” – the mesmerizing, mind-breaking lights within the creature Pennywise. Some believe the Crimson King and Pennywise are related, as both exist in both physical and otherworldly forms, like the Deadlights. Interestingly, the Crimson King can transform into a spider-like creature, similar to Pennywise’s true form as described in the IT novel. Both also claim to be powerful, world-consuming beings, hinting at a shared origin.

Stephen King never directly stated how Pennywise and the Crimson King are related, but that hasn’t stopped fans from developing theories. Some believe Pennywise might be the Crimson King’s child, similar to the character Mordred Deschain. Others suggest they’re siblings, both descended from the ancient Eld line. A more radical idea is that Pennywise is simply another form the Crimson King takes – both share a focus on children, and the clown form could be a disguise the Crimson King uses to hunt victims on Earth, as explored in the novel Welcome to Derry.

One of the exciting things about a show like Welcome to Derry is its ability to expand on subtle hints and connections. For example, the first season revealed that the ancient prison built by Derry’s Native American people to contain Pennywise was constructed using 13 pieces of meteorite – a detail that echoes the 12 beams and the Dark Tower which, in Stephen King’s world, support all of reality. The show also suggests that the military experiments happening in Derry are somehow linked to Pennywise’s connection to King’s larger “Macroverse,” the realm where the Dark Tower and other powerful beings exist.

According to Welcome to Derry showrunner Andy Muschietti, the show will eventually explain how the story connects to the world of The Dark Tower. He told TV Insider that the show aims to hint at a larger universe, revealing that everything beyond what viewers see is linked to The Dark Tower because it all exists within the same overarching world.

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2026-01-09 01:41