It slept for millions of years, then, when humans appeared in the area, It awoke and began a feeding cycle lasting about a year, feeding on people's fears and frequently assuming the shape of whatever its prey feared the most. After feeding, It would resume hibernation for approximately 30 years before reappearing.
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.
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.
Pennywise's Kills Add Up Over Time
The number is then multiplied by the number of times Pennywise has awakened -- once every 27 years throughout the 270-year history of Derry, equaling ten times -- to come up with a final tally of between 12,000 and 18,000 dead.
As Steve says, the creature fell to earth as a kind of a meteor during a prehistoric era, which would make it a few million years old.
Pennywise isn't bad per se. I have no idea what It fed on for the millions of years before humans came to Derry, but you have to realize Pennywise is a creature. When he takes kids he is only doing it for food he isn't doing it out of malice or evil intent. That's why he only takes enough kids to satisfy his hunger.
As well as having his right arm bitten off, Georgie is trying to crawl away but he was dragged into the sewers and devoured by Pennywise, with an unnamed older woman and her cat being the sole witnesses of the horrific scene, including before Georgie lost his arm.
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.
Pennywise's origins are briefly explored in both the book and It: Chapter Two, where it's revealed that he is a being that crash-landed on Earth from another dimension hundreds of years ago.
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.
The rest of the group realizes they can defeat it by shrinking it and therefore weakening it, which they achieve by standing up to it. They take out IT's heart and proceed to crush it, finally killing it. Eddie dies and his body is left behind.
It Is Actually An Ancient Cosmic Force Of Destruction
It is the real monster behind the monster. If you want to get technical, It is an alien, but It's origin goes well beyond that. It is actually an ancient cosmic deity. A god of destruction, not just of our world, but of multiple worlds and even multiple universes.
Throughout the book, It is generally referred to as male, usually appearing as Pennywise. The Losers come to believe It may be female after seeing it in the form of a monstrous giant spider that lays eggs.
Throughout the summer and their trials against Pennywise and the school bullies, the Losers realize that none of the adults in Derry can actually see Pennywise or the horrors he is committing against the children of Derry.
His feasting time lasts about 10 months. Then, he goes back to hibernating for 27 years until it is his time to feast again. The cycle continues until the Loser's Club defeated him for good the second time they fought him. WEAR A WATCH!
Kersh is Pennywise's daughter.
“Pennywise the Clown” was never human. He doesn't have a “backstory” in that sense. He was never anything other than what he is in the book.
That is, when Pennywise morphs into a werewolf, he is subject to the same weaknesses as a werewolf, including silver slugs. In both the original novel and made-for-television adaptation, Pennywise is weakened using silver bullets melted down from earrings.
Image via Warner Bros. Finally, Pennywise is beaten into submission. He scurries away, utters the word "fear," and partially disintegrates before falling into the void. It's a powerful defeat of a powerful monster, and it's satisfaction enough were IT to remain a single film.
Humiliated, Pennywise begins to shrink, transforming into an almost Benjamin Button–like, melted clown-baby.
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.
According to It, when humans got scared, "all the chemicals of fear flooded the body and salted the meat". This is why he prefers to feast on children -- their fears are simple, pure, and powerful compared to the complex, pathological fears of adults.
Pennywise is a monster who feeds on fear. His two tricks make him one of the most formidable evil. He intimates, induce fear and finally savour the death. Children are tender and can be easily harmed .
Yes, He can. Pennywise is an extra-dimensional being born from the Macroverse. It arrived on Earth during prehistory as a massive, cataclysmic meteor-esque impact, settling in the area that would become Derry, Maine.