The Pennywise the clown origin story sees an ancient, evil being that is perhaps as old as the universe
In the novel, It is a shapeshifting monster who usually takes the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, originating in a void containing and surrounding the Universe—a place referred to in the novel as the "Macroverse".
In the novel, It's origins are nebulous. He took the form of a clown most frequently, Mr. Bob Gray or Pennywise, but his true form is an ancient eldritch entity from another universe who landed in the town that would become Derry by way of an asteroid and first awoke in 1715.
In one scene, Jessica Chastain's Beverly sees a vision of Pennywise the clown before he puts on his white paint and we finally get a glimpse of Bill Skarsgård's actual face. He's the man behind the terrifying evil entity that's giving an entire new generation a clown phobia.
Throughout the novel, It appears most often in the guise of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Pennywise appears human at first glance, but on closer inspection anomalies (such as abnormal or changing eye color) are apparent. Its true form on the physical plane is a large spiderlike creature.
After the Losers show Pennywise they're not afraid anymore and are ready to fight it, the clown takes some hybrid forms to try to scare the group: Pennywise/burned arms for Mike, Pennywise with the head of the woman from the painting for Stan, Pennywise with spider legs, Pennywise with the head of a mummy for Ben, ...
It feasts on the flesh of humans simply because our fears are easy to manifest and they make us taste better. According to It, when humans got scared, "all the chemicals of fear flooded the body and salted the meat".
Stephen King's 'IT' introduced readers to a one-of-a-kind creature that can take any form, the most common one being Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and as menacing as it is, this creature has one big enemy it's truly scared of: Maturin, the turtle.
“It” is an evil entity that usually takes the form of a clown named Pennywise (played by Bill Skarsgård) and returns to Derry, Maine every 27 years to terrorize the town. The red balloon is a harbinger that It is watching you.
King decided for IT to predominantly take the shape of Pennywise the Dancing Clown because he believes "clowns scare children more than anything else in the world." IT influences the adults of Derry to passively ignore it and not interfere with his attacks on Derry's children.
The 27-year cycle refers to the extended interval between waking periods of the extra-dimensional shapeshifter in the novel IT, as well as the interval between occurences of The Troubles (outbreaks of increased supernatural activity) in the television series Haven.
Related: What Does Pennywise Really Look Like In IT? IT arrived on Earth through an event similar to an asteroid impact, landing in what would later become Derry, Maine. Once there, IT adopted its usual pattern of hibernation that lasted between 27 and 30 years, awakening to kill and eat and then going back to sleep.
Georgie Denbrough - Wikipedia
dies, Pennywise was thinking about his first meal in 27 years, and in Pennywise's words, fear in a kid is like “salting the meat.” So, when Georgie was laughing, Pennywise knew Georgie was not scared so he stopped laughing to make sure he was still fearful.
Throughout Stephen King's It, Pennywise is referred to as a male, but author Stephen King pulled a fast one on readers in the It book ending by revealing the creature's true form was a pregnant spider, implying that it is, in fact, biologically female.
Pennywise is a fictional character. No. Pennywise may be scary but you should know that he is not real, he is a fictional character. So if you're scared of him don't worry about it, after all it is nothing to worry about, and if you get easily scared then you should not watch it for many reasons.
It's weaknesses are courage and heart. For the sake of spoilers, I won't go too much into the Ritual of Chüd, but suffice it to say that if you want to defeat It, you've got to have the two traits listed above.
The spider-clown shrinks as the Losers hurl taunts at It, until it's tiny and weak enough that they pluck out its heart and squash it into nothingness. In the end, they defeat Pennywise by, uh, making him feel really bad about himself.
Stephen King's IT introduced readers to a one-of-a-kind creature that can take any form, the most common one being Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and as menacing as it is, this creature has one big enemy it's truly scared of: Maturin, the turtle.
Beverly "Bev" Marsh is a fictional character created by Stephen King and one of the main characters of his 1986 horror novel It.
Though it is just before the next twenty-seven year IT cycle, this is our first glimpse of Pennywise in IT Chapter One. In the opening scene of the film, young Georgie Denbrough playing with a paper boat made for him by his brother Bill. He loses the boat down the sewer and faces Pennywise when he tries to get it back.
As in the 1990 ABC miniseries, which starred Tim Curry as the terrifying clown, Pennywise takes the form of a giant spider for the final battle. (According to King's book, Pennywise actually is a spider—sort of.
The Losers moulded it into the form of a spider because that was all their puny human minds could perceive it as, but it wasn't really the spider. In the same way that a spider cannot truly understand what a human being is.
IT hates humans so much that IT underestimates their intelligence. Most of all, IT gains power from its victims' perception.