{"id":19521,"date":"2025-12-14T02:06:34","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T18:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=19521"},"modified":"2025-12-14T02:06:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T18:06:34","slug":"it-welcome-to-derry-and-the-origin-of-pennywises-human-half","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=19521","title":{"rendered":"IT: Welcome to Derry and the Origin of Pennywise\u2019s Human Half"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><strong>Spoilers follow for <\/strong><u><strong>IT: Welcome to Derry<\/strong><\/u><strong> Episodes 1-7.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><u>Episode 7 of IT: Welcome to Derry<\/u> introduced us to Bob Gray, a character briefly glimpsed in the movie IT Chapter Two but one who is of great interest to fans of Stephen King\u2019s creation. Essentially, Bob Gray is the original, human Pennywise, whose form It began to favor taking to hunt the children of Derry. Now Welcome to Derry is finally telling his story.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Andy Muschietti, who directed the IT movies and developed Welcome to Derry with his sister\/producing partner Barbara Muschietti and co-showrunner Jason Fuchs, told me that the goal of the show was always to dig into the \u201cbig enigmas\u201d that are presented in the Stephen King book. He felt that King intentionally created an incomplete puzzle, with cryptic characters and events that lent themselves to being further explored. And chief among them was the character of Bob Gray, aka the man who would become Pennywise.<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"jsx-313219616\"><img alt=\"null\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"progressive-image article-image article-image-full-size jsx-1809694635 jsx-2338608387\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><figcaption data-cy=\"caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490 jsx-479945570 article-image-caption\">Bill Skarsg\u00e5rd as Bob Gray and Emma-Leigh Cullum as his young daughter, Ingrid<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><\/output><\/p>\n<h2 data-cy=\"title2\" class=\"title2 jsx-1903782357 jsx-3735650234\">Bob Gray, the Man Behind the Clown<\/h2>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cBob Gray, the man behind the clown,\u201d said Andy. \u201c[He\u2019s] an absolute mystery. It&#8217;s mentioned a couple of times [in the book], but never is there really a fleshing out of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Barbara points out that the mystery of this character was a big part of what brought the show into existence, and it all came from the conversations that Andy and Pennywise actor Bill Skarsg\u00e5rd had during production of IT Chapter Two in 2018.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cBill did a very small flashback into Bob Gray and loved it,\u201d she recalled. \u201cSo they started talking about exploring that. And when the pandemic came, Andy&#8217;s like, \u2018Let&#8217;s start talking about that!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">With the development time the pandemic allowed, the Muschiettis and Skarsg\u00e5rd started to really dig in on what Bob Gray\u2019s story might be, as it has never been fleshed out by Stephen King. Yes, we know about <u>Pennywise\u2019s cosmic origins<\/u>, but the dancing clown? Not so much. Until now.<\/p>\n<div class=\"display-title jsx-959792410 jsx-2659527929 quote-container\" data-cy=\"quoteBox\">I went back into all the interludes and all the catastrophic events that are depicted in every one of the cycles. And I saw a story there, a hidden story.<\/div>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cIt&#8217;s more like an incarnation of Bob Gray [in IT Chapter Two], it&#8217;s an IT incarnation, so you can see the evil behind,\u201d said Andy. \u201cBut who was Bob Gray really? It all started there. And then delving deeper into it, I went back into all the interludes and all the catastrophic events that are depicted in every one of the cycles. And I saw a story there, a hidden story that was worth telling. And of course there was a lot of invention, which was part of the excitement of it. It&#8217;s like, OK, we&#8217;re going to fill the gaps, put all the pieces of the puzzle that are missing.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 data-cy=\"title2\" class=\"title2 jsx-1903782357 jsx-3735650234\">The Origin of Pennywise\u2019s Human Self<\/h2>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The approach then was to figure out who the human character was. For starters, the writers and producers knew they didn\u2019t want him to be some kind of a psychopath. And they wanted to find the humanity of the character.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cIt&#8217;s shrouded in a bit of darkness and ominousness,\u201d said Andy. \u201cBut we presented him as someone that was benign, that was basically someone that life didn&#8217;t work very well for. He has a daughter and he wants to do well. And then when Bill finally came in, we started really granularly exploring the character and he said, \u2018All this is good, but I don&#8217;t think we should do such a wholesome thing.\u2019 And that&#8217;s where alcoholism appeared, the grumpiness. And so it&#8217;s very nuanced. You see a character that is taking swigs from a flask in between when the curtains fall. And there&#8217;s a reason for that. The reason is the death of his wife.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">This is the backstory that was created for the character by Muschietti, Skarsg\u00e5rd, and the show\u2019s writers, and which we get a true feel for in Episode 7.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cBob Gray was a big clown in a big circus,\u201d explains Andy. \u201cOne day he lost his wife and that sort of pushed him into a down-spiraling hole where he became an alcoholic. He was fired from the circus, rehired sometime later into a small traveling circus, and we have this scene where he&#8217;s basically talking to his daughter and he reminisces about the good old times. And even though he&#8217;s in bad shape right now, because he&#8217;s an alcoholic, he has hope. And Ingrid, his little daughter, is what keeps the hope alive for him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Of course, Ingrid is Ingrid Kersh, aka Periwinkle (another invention of Welcome to Derry\u2019s), the adult version of whom is played by Madeleine Stowe. And certainly her dad\u2019s disappearance after his run-in with IT leads her life to a not-great place, to say the least. But that\u2019s a different story.<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"jsx-313219616\"><img alt=\"null\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"progressive-image article-image article-image-full-size jsx-1809694635 jsx-2338608387\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><figcaption data-cy=\"caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490 jsx-479945570 article-image-caption\">Madeleine Stowe as the adult Ingrid Kersh\/Periwinkle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><\/output><\/p>\n<h2 data-cy=\"title2\" class=\"title2 jsx-1903782357 jsx-3735650234\">Maturin, The Dark Tower Connections, and Welcome to Derry Seasons 2 and 3<\/h2>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The Muschiettis told me that when they started putting the story together for the show, they had much more than they could possibly include in just one season. And so a three-season plan was hatched, as the writers had to take chunks of story out and save them for future seasons.<\/p>\n<div class=\"display-title jsx-959792410 jsx-2659527929 quote-container\" data-cy=\"quoteBox\">It talks more about the reason of IT, what is IT, what does IT want, and why is IT in this plane of existence?<\/div>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cIt&#8217;s a bigger story that goes across the two following seasons,\u201d Andy explained. \u201cIt talks more about the reason of IT, what is IT, what does IT want, and why is IT in this plane of existence? But also, it&#8217;s a glimpse into the bigger mythology that looms on the other side. The thing with the book is that it&#8217;s told from the perspective of our human characters very much. There&#8217;s only like two or three moments that, through the Maturin root or the Smoke-Hole, we access other planes of reality, but it&#8217;s very sparse. It&#8217;s just very, very contained, but it does really connect to other works of Stephen King, mainly The Dark Tower. And there&#8217;s so much about the turtle, Maturin. That is one of those things that people who love these movies, they really are into Maturin. So basically across the two more seasons, we&#8217;re going to explore the bigger mythology.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 data-cy=\"title2\" class=\"title2 jsx-1903782357 jsx-3735650234\">IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 8, Season 1 Finale Release Date and Time<\/h2>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The final episode of IT: Welcome to Derry Season 1 will debut on HBO Max at 6pm PT\/9pm ET on Sunday, December 14. Tell them Bob Gray sent you!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/it-welcome-to-derry-origin-of-pennywise-bob-gray-human-half\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spoilers follow for IT: Welcome to Derry Episodes 1-7. Episode 7 of IT: Welcome to Derry introduced us to Bob Gray, a character briefly glimpsed&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6881,2618,9856,12849],"class_list":["post-19521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-derry","tag-human","tag-origin","tag-pennywises","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}