The length of Stephen King’s 1986 book “It,” which is the first item that needs to be acknowledged, is over 1,100 pages. The story takes place over two time periods and centres on a group of seven friends who are being chased by a demonic clown that lives in the sewers under their little Maine community. The first part of the book takes place in the 1950s when the protagonists are somewhere between 12 and 14 years old, and the second half is set in the current day when the protagonists have become miserable adults who are still plagued by flashbacks to their childhood foe. In this way, the book illustrates how confronting a monster and your greatest fears as a child can result in trauma and dysfunction as an adult. The 1980s will ultimately require another confrontation with the clown.
The “It” mythology is convoluted and perplexing. The novel explains that the wicked shape-shifting clown Pennywise is actually an old, eldritch spider monster from another dimension that “surrounds” known space, even if this isn’t mentioned in the films or TV miniseries adaptations. Since his arrival on Earth aeons ago, Pennywise has been pursuing the residents of Derry, Maine, on a regular basis. Pennywise breaks out of its hibernation cycle once every 27 years to consume human flesh. It long ago discovered that people are tastier when they are experiencing extreme terror, and as a result, it learnt to read people’s minds and adopt the form of whatever they were most afraid of. One must perform the Ritual of Chüd in order to see the monster’s real form.
The fact that Pennywise’s arch-enemy is a gigantic galactic turtle named Maturin—the same one from many of the old creation stories of Earth—is also mostly unmentioned in the films or miniseries. When this turtle had a tummy pain, it puked the universe. Clown Cthulhu Pennywise despises the Ancient Giant Space Turtle God.
Let’s look at the TV and movie adaptations now that everyone is in agreement.
The It movies
A miniseries version of “It” by Tommy Lee Wallace was released in 1990. It was divided into two movie-length chapters, one set in the 1950s with a kid cast and the other in the present. Tim Curry portrayed the clown, who left a terrifying impression on all the kids who saw him. The miniseries is roughly 192 minutes long in an effort to mirror the length and density of the novel.
In 2017, “It” was readapted into two feature films by director Andy Muschietti, who was working from a script by Chase Palmer, Gary Fukunaga, and Gary Dauberman. The first “It” from was also divided into two parts, like the miniseries, and took place in the past when the characters were still kids but time-shifted to the late 1980s. 2019 saw the publication of “It Chapter Two,” which was written solely by Dauberman and takes place in the present with a fresh cast of grownups. The same young performers from the previous chapter returned for lengthy flashbacks in “It Chapter Two,” not to be outdone. The combined running time of the two “It” feature films was 304 minutes.
The Clown Demon (played by Bill Skarsgrd) was defeated once more by the bravery and cunning of the people at the conclusion of “It Chapter Two,” but there was still a lot that was unanswered. One was that the turtle god wasn’t mentioned. Second, the children in the 2017 movie performed a lot of their own research into Pennywise’s origins and discovered spooky old photographs and movie reels from the time when Pennywise initially assumed the guise of a clown. This suggested that Pennywise had a much more extensive past, one that was probably filled with horrifying instances of people being tortured and eaten throughout Derry’s shadowy past.
Many people enjoyed the “It” movies, and some people pondered whether Pennywise’s unresolved past would ever return to the big screen. Director Andy Muschietti put a stop to such rumours in an interview with Gizmodo, pretty much stating definitively that it will not happen.
It Chapter Three
“There are always possibilities to investigate mythology. It has existed on Earth for a very long time. Every 27 years for hundreds of years, he has interacted with people. So that you can appreciate the volume of information… The prospect of ultimately studying this mythology is always intriguing. It’s a lot of fun.”
Does that imply…?
But nothing is on the table at the moment.
It would have to make up a story from scratch if there were to be a “It Chapter Three.” The third chapter, which would take place 27 years after the events of the 2019 film, would reverse much of the power the protagonists had attained and render numerous significant sacrifices useless. As such, the story of King’s novel had essentially been fully told.
HBO Max employees may be developing a “It” prequel series as a result of their apparent intuition that a sequel would not be a good idea. A miniseries titled “Welcome to Derry” is now in development and is planned to take place in the same time period as the Muschietti flicks, according to a Variety article from April 2022. According to Variety, “Welcome to Derry” will take set in the 1960s, 27 years before “It,” and will highlight Pennywise’s genesis.
Sorry to disappoint the followers of the evil changeling spider-shaped dread deities from outer space, but it appears that Pennywise has stored his balloons for the time being.
