It: Welcome to Derrywrapped up its first season earlier this week, and while horror hounds wait to hear whether HBO will make good on that “Chapter One” end-title card and announce a “Chapter Two,” NECA has revealed another figure from the show to add to your Pennywise collection. Step right up, children: this clown is ready to feast on you and all your friends!
As fans of the show well remember, the Bill Skarsgård-portrayed character was just about to slink into 27 years of slumber when the U.S. Air Force made the genius decision to leave a gaping hole in the cosmic “cage” that’s been keeping him contained for centuries.
Most of his body has already submerged into his hibernation muck—but Pennywise’s eyes snap open when he gets a whiff of freedom. His encore rampage through 1962 Derry features a gruesome makeover, since he’s now stained a ruddy color from the cheeks down—the collective blood and guts of his victims, presumably.
The detail here is immaculate, and by that we mean repulsive (in the best way). Here are more looks at the figure:
“From the twisted world of Stephen King and the HBO series IT: Welcome to Derry, NECA unleashes Ultimate Blood Pennywise!,” NECA’s site, where you can pre-order the figure, exclaims. “The nightmare-inducing Dancing Clown is back to terrorize Derry—and your shelf—as a fully articulated Ultimate action figure. Standing in 7-inch scale, Pennywise features gruesome, blood-soaked deco and interchangeable heads and hands. Comes in collector-friendly window box packaging with opening front flap.”
Of course he comes with a balloon! All this is missing is another alternate head exposing Pennywise’s many, many rows of teeth poised to strike, though we wouldn’t be surprised if NECA is working on one of those.
He’ll set you back $38 and is estimated to ship in the second quarter of 2026.
At long last, this week’s episode of It: Welcome to Derry gave fans what they’d been waiting for: Pennywise the Dancing Clown in full circus regalia, complete with glowing eyes and way too many pointy teeth. The big moment was well worth it, and even if it felt like episode five was a long time to hold out on It‘s signature villain, the show’s creative team—which includes Barbara Muschietti, Andy Muschietti, Brad Caleb Kane, and Jason Fuchs—has often spoken about why they wanted to build that anticipation. But now that Pennywise is here, what’s next?
For starters: more details about his past, beyond what we already know about the asteroid thanks to the It movies and Stephen King’s book, not to mention earlier episodes of Welcome to Derry. Speaking to TV Guide, Fuchs promised “a lot of Pennywise” moving forward, with Kane teasing, “He’s in! He’s another character,” meaning Welcome to Derry‘s already large ensemble is simply going to have to make room for more.
If you watched the teaser for episode six, which arrives Sunday on HBO, you might have spotted a familiar face: Bill Skarsgård, not in his Pennywise greasepaint, but instead in the guise of Pennywise’s most notable human form: “Bob Gray.” He pops up in King’s book, but Welcome to Derry aims to dig even deeper into what he means to the story.
“Certainly, when we talk about the mysteries we’re excited to discover, we’re excited to understand why the shapeshifter has chosen to return, time and again, to the form of Pennywise,” Fuchs told TV Guide. “And what was that first encounter with Bob Gray? What did that look like? Who is Bob Gray? We have a lot of whys we want answers to, and the story of Bob Gray and the story of Pennywise are certainly in that bucket. So without spoiling anything in those final episodes, you’re going to see that mystery looked into in a really serious way.”
But what will Bob Gray’s chompers look like? Find out on It: Welcome to Derry, which drops new episodes Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.
There have been two episodes of It: Welcome to Derry, and Pennywise is taking his sweet time to make his entrance as dramatic and traumatic as possible.
In io9’s recent chat with the minds behind the show, which expands the Stephen King It universe, Jason Fuchs (writer, producer, and co-showrunner) shared that they “wanted to understand why a shape-shifter who has a virtually infinite number of forms it could take continues to take the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown.” He also said that fans can expect to get “really satisfying answers to some of those things in the context of the show. But the answers themselves suggest fresh mysteries and new questions.” Since they were given free rein by King himself to do whatever they want, we’re anxious to see how much new input they’re putting into the horror legend’s scariest creation.
So far we have so many questions! The first couple episodes truly play with the expectations of how It is perceived, playing tricks on the audience’s minds as well as its young characters. It begins with that gnarly birthing scene where the fleshy demon bat baby comes out to feast on the children of Derry, starting with Matty Clements. This grotesque incarnation makes us wonder if it’s just It awakening from its cyclical slumber in the most dramatic way possible or if it’s reborn every time and quickly evolves into a bigger form the more kids it claims.
By the end of the episode, it goes from the size of an eagle to a bigger creature when it takes out half the kids that were introduced. This isn’t Stranger Things; we at least get the sense that no one is safe. Everyone in Derry who has a fair share of darkness and trauma is game for It. And that point is made very clearly as we meet new characters.
In episode two, the surviving girls, Lilly (Clara Stack) and Ronnie (Amanda Christine), are preyed on through It taking the forms of their dead parents. Not as a clown, but instead giving Ronnie the major retraumatization of being birthed by a demonic version of her mom, who passed away when she was born. Likewise, Lilly faces her father in the form of It, taking pieces of him in pickle jars to scare her. But again, it raises a lot of ideas of how It decides to masquerade. Was It really the demon mom or pickled, dead daddy? Or were these just projections it could manipulate? They both disappear instantly; we’re leaning toward more projections than a corporeal outfit that It chooses to take.
Why the entity chooses to don its iconic clown garb has yet to be explored despite marketing bombarding us with Pennywise’s signature look. If we think back on It: Chapter Two, you might recall that there’s a scene where Beverly encounters Pennywise getting ready and looking most definitely like a man putting on clown makeup in a twisted “Get Ready With Me’ moment; we even see It use its fingernails to tear the red lines onto its face.
The trailers tease that the circus or carnival origin story is coming, with glimpses of Skarsgård in his creepy man form without makeup, as we’ve seen in the movies. Hopefully in this Sunday’s episode, we’ll get more lore about Its origin; the entity has been encountered by the Indigenous people around Derry in the past, who have had more knowledge of its presence as an ancient being or alien. Perhaps It body-snatched a carnie after its previous host was destroyed. Because otherwise, why does It go through the effort to put on the face? It can’t be just for funzies, right? If he can just morph into anything, why go through the effort to put on his dancing clown face? It feels like there is an element of having a main form as a corporeal host to unleash its horrors. We are itching to find out more and to see Skarsgård return.
As Stephen King fans well know, Pennywise the Dancing Clown emerges every 27 years to feast on the people of Derry, especially the younger generation. That’s why It: Welcome to Derry takes place in 1962, 27 years before the 1989 events of Andy Muschietti’s 2017 It feature film, and 54 years before the 2016 setting of It Chapter Two.
The early ‘60s setting allows It: Welcome to Derry to tap into the broader cultural climate of the era, drawing on issues like the civil rights movement and Cold War dread. io9 recently participated in a press day for the new HBO show ahead of its arrival on October 26, speaking with Muschietti (a co-creator and executive producer on the series, in addition to being the director of multiple episodes) as well as writers, executive producers, and co-showrunners Brad Caleb Kane and Jason Fuchs.
“[1962] is part of the story because we are telling the story through Pennywise cycles. So it was unavoidable to go to ‘62; this is our first step into a bigger journey,” explained Muschietti. “Segregation was still around; racial problems [were] at the heart of every town in America, especially the South, but also in the North, as we see in Maine, in the story. And the Cold War [too].”
He continued. “It was actually exciting to talk about these things because it creates not only a look into history, but also dramatic opportunities [for] our characters … Also, ‘62 is very close to the original time [setting] of It, the book. When we did the movie adaptation, we transferred it to the ‘80s. And now we’re telling a prequel that happened in ‘62, but ‘62 is very close to 1958, which is [when the novel takes place]. So it’s a bit of going back to the original feeling of the book and trying to explore a little bit of that world with its own flavors and textures, and also the childhood of Stephen King.”
Kane elaborated on the setting in a separate interview with io9. “You can’t tell a story about an interdimensional being that exploits people’s fears in 1962 without addressing the great fears of the time and the great troubles of the time. We leaned into it,” he said.
“And 1962 is very much considered a time of Norman Rockwell’s America; it’s a time that’s idealized with great innocence. Obviously it wasn’t that way for everybody, but if you think of 1962 in America, before Kennedy was assassinated, as the last moment of innocence in this country, well, what happens when you scratch the surface of that innocence, that idealized time, and you find out what’s underneath? I think you’ll see something very different than the facade, and we tried to lean into that reality as well.”
While most of the show takes place in 1962, it also takes time to explore the deeper history of the Derry area. The local Native American population plays a major role in the new series, bringing in a perspective not represented in King’s original story or any of its previous adaptations.
“They’re the first people that met the monster, and they play a crucial role in the fight against it,” Muschietti teased. “There’s a part of the story that is not even in the book that is a crucial story point in this series, which tells us about the struggle of the Indigenous people against It, and that has tremendous ripple effects on generations to come.”
Kane expanded on why the Indigenous storyline was so important to include in It: Welcome to Derry. “We wanted to go back to the origins of the creature—and we wanted to talk about the stewards of the land. The Indigenous people have lived with this evil much longer than anybody else, having been here longer than anyone else, and they understand that evil is not something that you can necessarily defeat,” he said.
“It’s a constant; it’s a reality in life. It needs to be addressed; it needs to be confronted and understood, most importantly, and in lieu of destroying it, it needs to be contained properly. And that’s what the Indigenous people in Derry seek to do in the story. So we felt that was an important perspective. And obviously, if we’re thinking about Derry as a microcosm of America, you can’t tell America’s story without the Indigenous perspective. And I think that was an important reason for us to do it.”
While the Indigenous characters form a key part of It: Welcome to Derry, the show also aims for a microcosm feel—as Kane suggested, noting King originated the idea of looking at Derry through that lens. We spend time with the kids as they realize there’s a monster in their midst. But we also get to know their parents and other adults in town, as well as the soldiers stationed on the military base nearby. It’s a lot of cards to stack, but co-showrunners Kane and Fuchs didn’t see it as a challenge.
“I think we saw it much more as an opportunity,” Fuchs said. “TV is obviously long-form storytelling and so we had a chance to delve into different perspectives in a way that the two hours of a movie just doesn’t allow you to. We were really excited to get to see grown-up characters who were more aware of the entity than the grown-ups we meet in the context of the films. We were excited to go into different communities. We hadn’t really seen Derry or It through the perspective of the Indigenous community, and it was an opportunity to also get a group of characters at the center of this, the Hanlon family, who are new to Derry, to really provide a way in for new fans who maybe haven’t read the book or seen the films. We have a family at the core of this adventure who are being introduced to the world of Derry themselves for the first time. It was all by design and something we’re really excited about; it felt like this was an opportunity for something a little different.”
While the show draws on a fair amount of new material, the fact that it’s a prequel means viewers have a good idea of what happens next—including the fact that Pennywise has more cycles on the way. Crafting a satisfying ending for viewers who already know the monster won’t be defeated took a certain nuanced approach.
“The benefit of long-form storytelling is really that you can dive into character a lot more deeply. And we’re introducing a whole new set of characters in this than we saw in the movies,” Kane said. “But we try to rip the rug out from underneath people right away so you never know what’s going to happen. You never know what to expect; you never know who you can come to care for that’s not going to be wrenched away from you. We want to give the audience that feeling: to imbue you with love for these new characters and make you fear for their safety.”
“And really, that’s the ride we’re taking. It’s not necessarily, ‘Will It be defeated in the end or not?’ but ‘Will these characters survive? Will they learn lessons? Will they grow up? Will the parents see their children again? Will the evil plan that’s being hatched as the engine of this piece be enacted in some way, or will that snap back on the person enacting it?’”
Kane continued. “We wanted to tell a story about unity and about innocence lost, just like the main themes of the book. Growing up and realizing that fear and hatred and all that stuff can only be really defeated through community and through love and through growth. We try to do all that with the characters, and that kind of journey makes it a lot more expansive than just, ‘Will It be defeated or not?’ We’re trying to paint a story on a much larger canvas.”
It: Welcome to Derry expands what fans know about Pennywise’s history in quite a few aspects, but it’s careful not to shine too bright of a light on things. As Fuchs explained, revealing details but also keeping some of that mystery intact was a delicate task.
“It was a constant balancing act—how much to reveal, how much to keep hidden. I think that what’s great about the richness of Stephen King’s mythology is that the more answers to mysteries you reveal, the more new mysteries suggest themselves,” Fuchs said. “So yeah, Brad and I wanted to know more about It. We wanted to understand why a being like It remains in Derry when it’s a creature of light. It could travel anywhere. Why Derry? We wanted to understand why a shape-shifter who has a virtually infinite number of forms it could take continues to take the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown.”
“So you’re going to get, I hope, really satisfying answers to some of those things in the context of the show. But the answers themselves suggest fresh mysteries and new questions. And that’s part of the fun of the genre and of Stephen King’s mythology. You can always go deeper and deeper.”
Horror fans have a pretty good idea of what to expect from Pennywise the Clown. The Stephen King creation takes many forms, but he exists to inspire terror in his victims before demolishing them, and his most effective and recognizable guise involves a frilly costume, glowing eyes, and a mouth full of way too many razor-sharp teeth.
That’s why this new NECA figure tied to HBO’s upcoming prequel seriesIt: Welcome to Derry is so disconcerting. This is not the Pennywise we’re used to running into in the sewers!
First, and most startlingly, the figure shows a human countenance beneath the clown wig. And the face below that receding hairline is… surprisingly gentle-looking?
As NECA’s website reports, this is the It: Welcome to Derry “Ultimate Bob Gray as Pennywise” seven-inch scale action figure. If you’re more of a casual It fan, “Bob Gray” may not ring any bells, but diehards will know the name. And it seems, at least according to NECA, we’ll be meeting him in the flesh in HBO’s new series:
“Before Pennywise was a demonic clown, he was Bob Gray, a circus performer playing a clown onstage. Based on the show’s flashback scenes, this 7-inch scale figure includes multiple interchangeable heads and hands, stage props, flowers, wooden beaver, wig, and wig stand.”
We did know that Welcome to Derry would be tapping into flashbacks to set the scene in Derry, circa 1962, but getting to see Pennywise the Clown before he became entwined with an entity of evil feels like a pretty big reveal. And that’s not all; the figure includes clown faces that make one of horror’s greatest villains appear alternately gentle, sad, and happy.
Here’s all the accessories the “Ultimate Bob Gray as Pennywise” comes with. A clown is not a clown without his sidekick wooden beaver, after all.
Want a Bob Gray of your own to remind you that even child-chomping monsters might not have been such baddies to begin with? You can preorder now ($38, ships in 2026) at NECA’s website.
How big of a spoiler for Welcome to Derry this collectible is remains to be seen, but Pennywise himself—played in the show by the returning Bill Skarsgård—has barely been glimpsed in any of its official marketing thus far.
If you prefer your Pennywise as a bloody beast, NECA has you covered with a far more ghoulish 7″ version available for pre-order here. Less gory but also way bigger at 18″ tall is this take on the balloon-bearing menace.
It: Welcome to Derry premieres October 26 on HBO. Will Bob Gray turn up with his beaver and wig stand? NECA seems pretty sure.
Bill Skarsgård is back as Pennywise for the It prequel Welcome to Derry, and like the movies, the show will use him when the scary situation truly calls for it.
Talking to SFX Magazine, co-showrunner Andy Muschietti likened the clown’s appearances in the show to the shark in Jaws: “It’s very appropriate for a monster that is a shapeshifter to appear in several different shapes and manifestations before he shows up as a clown,” he said. “The idea is building tension around the apparition of a monster that we know already, and people are waiting – when is it going to appear?”
A simple idea, sure, but one Muschietti and his co-showrunner (and sister) Barbara say more than works for Welcome to Derry. The latter called the new creations cooked up for the show “pretty damn incredible” and “so much more” than what’s been seen in the trailers. Since every episode was made to “pack a punch,” the team strived to make these “new incarnations and fears” stand on their own while living up to the level of what was achieved in the two films.
“When [Pennywise] appears, it’s in a big way,” teased Andy Muschietti. He hopes the audience will find it “gratifying” when the cosmic entity does appear on screen, and we’ll see how that trick works when Welcome to Derry premieres October 26 on HBO.
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According to Deadline, Skarsgård will also executive produce the show along with his fellow It film franchise creative team at Warner Bros. The show was inspired by the Stephen King novel It and was developed by the franchise’s director Andy Muschietti with producer Barbara Muschietti. They’re also joined by Chapter Two co-producer Jason Fuchs with the films’ other producers, Roy Lee and Dan Lin. Now with Skarsgård in the mix, we’re excited for more horror in the prequel series. Muschietti is set to direct four episodes out of the nine in the series order.
Recently, Bill Skarsgård starred in Boy Kills World and will be featured as Eric Draven in the upcoming The Crow reboot, while Andy Muschietti remained in the Warner Bros. family with The Flash. Needless to say, we are excited to see them team up again with more world-building and creepy killer clownery in the Stephen King universe. Their take on It has become the quintessential one garnering $1.17 billion worldwide. And in an age with ever-expanding mythologies, characters like Pennywise can keep floating on in horror infamy as long as he wants.
