Pennywise’s Lovecraft Origins Explored In Upcoming Stephen King Show

An upcoming Stephen King show will not only feature one of his most iconic monsters but also reveal one dark truth about it. The monster in question has previously appeared on both the small and big screens on several occasions, but the upcoming Stephen King adaptation will seemingly portray it in a completely new light.

Stephen King’s long line of work in horror is jam-packed with several memorable monsters and supernatural creatures. While some, like the Overlook Hotel and Pet Sematary, are full-fledged settings that curse those who come in contact with them, others, like Gage Creed and Randall Flagg, are perfect personifications of evil.

Some of these monsters and supernatural entities from Stephen King’s books are far more well-known and deeply ingrained in pop-culture than others. However, one monster easily ranks above all others in terms of familiarity. This monster will soon appear in a new Stephen King TV show, likely in a much bleaker and haunting form.

Pennywise’s Lovecraftian Influences Will Be Even More Evident After It: Welcome To Derry

Although Stephen King’s novel never explicitly mentions it, it has been heavily discussed whether Pennywise qualifies as a Lovecraftian monster. Stephen King’s IT reveals how Pennywise came from another dimension millions of years ago, and its true form is beyond human comprehension.

Pennywise’s nemesis is also revealed to be another ancient entity called Maturin. Even when it comes to Pennywise’s motivations, there is always an air of ambiguity surrounding why the monster does what it does. Many humans who even come in contact with the being often experience a sense of insanity that seems reminiscent of what happens to characters in Lovecraftian horror.

Many other aspects of the existing cosmic mythology surrounding Pennywise remind one of Lovecraft’s Great Old Ones in the Cthulhu Mythos. Unfortunately, the IT movies, so far, have barely explored these cosmic elements that define the monster’s identity and make it even scarier in the original Stephen King story.

Given how HBO’s It: Welcome to Derry will delve deeper into Pennywise’s history and bring story elements from the interludes in Stephen King’s original book, it seems likely that the show will make the monster seem far more Lovecraftian than the movies.

A Lovecraftian Angle Would Make Pennywise Even Scarier

While the movies did an incredible job of portraying Pennywise, they seemingly oversimplified its terrors and even streamlined the original stories from the book to have a more mainstream appeal. The upcoming HBO show will also likely tread the same path, but its narrative choice allows it to incline more towards the cosmic dread that often defines Lovecraftian horror.

Even when it comes to the Ritual of Chüd in Stephen King‘s It, it is originally a complex and hard-to-understand concept. The movies, however, simplified it instead of embracing its true cosmic elements. With its emphasis on Pennywise’s history, HBO’s It: Welcome to Derry can avoid repeating the same mistake and embrace its source material’s Lovecraftian inspirations.