IT: Welcome to Derry was marketed as an origin story for the shapeshifting entity most famously known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård). The premiere episode of the prequel series, however, focused instead on the formation of a new Losers’ Club and a secretive Air Force base established on the outskirts of the cursed Maine town. With its second episode, the show begins to unravel the mystery of the military’s presence, revealing a clandestine operation with a truly shocking goal. This new direction comes with the implicit promise that the series will finally explore the creature’s true cosmic nature, offering a chance to avoid one of the biggest mistakes made by the recent IT films.
Warning: Spoilers below for IT: Welcome to Derry, Episode 2
Episode 2 of IT: Welcome to Derry unveils Operation Precept, a top-secret initiative run by General Shaw (James Remar). Shaw and his superiors are aware of the supernatural phenomena that plague Derry, and he describes the entity as something capable of scaring a man “badly enough to kill him where he stands.” At the height of the Cold War, with the world on the edge of nuclear annihilation, the United States military views this creature as the ultimate psychological weapon. As such, the goal of Operation Precept is to track, capture, and weaponize Pennywise to ensure American supremacy. This military-driven investigation into the entity’s nature will inevitably uncover truths about its origins, giving the prequel series a perfect opportunity to make up for the deeply disappointing climax of IT: Chapter Two.
What Is Pennywise’s True Form in Stephen King’s Book?
In Stephen King’s original novel, the true nature of It is fundamentally beyond human understanding. That’s because the entity is a transdimensional being that originated in a void-like space outside the known universe, which King calls the Macroverse. Its true form within this void is an unknowable mass of swirling energy referred to as the Deadlights. These lights are so alien and so psychologically destructive that a human mind cannot process them without being driven instantly insane or dying.
That means the creature’s physical manifestations in our world, including Pennywise the Clown, are merely puppets. The spider form that the Losers confront is not its true self, but the closest physical approximation their minds can conjure to represent a being so ancient, female, and pregnant with horrors. It is a mental filter, a necessary translation that makes the incomprehensible just comprehensible enough to be fought.
The metaphysical nature of the It creature directly informs the novel’s climax: the Ritual of Chüd. In the book, the ritual is a psychic war waged on a metaphysical plane. Guided by the benevolent turtle god Maturin—It’s cosmic rival and a guardian of the Dark Tower—Bill Denbrough learns that the only way to fight It is to meet it on its own terms. The Ritual involves a battle of wills where Bill psychically “bites down” on It’s metaphysical tongue and is pulled across the universe into the Deadlights. Here, in the heart of the Macroverse, he must use the power of his childhood imagination and belief as a weapon. The adult Losers later repeat this ritual, with Richie Tozier joining Bill in the psychic assault, to finally destroy the entity’s spiritual essence.
Can IT: Welcome to Derry Redeem the Second Movie?
IT: Chapter Two made the critical error of abandoning King’s abstract horror in favor of a conventional monster movie finale. For starters, the film’s representation of It’s final form was a literal hybrid of Pennywise and a giant spider, a decision that transformed an unknowable cosmic entity into a standard CGI creature. Therefore, the existential dread of facing something beyond comprehension was replaced by a tangible monster that could be physically dodged and attacked. This simplification completely deflated the source material’s power, reducing its most ambitious ideas to a generic spectacle that was far from frightening.
The movie’s oversimplification of the King’s work also extended to the Ritual of Chüd, which was stripped of all its metaphysical elements. The psychic journey into the Macroverse, the battle of wills, and the crucial guidance of Maturin were all completely removed. In their place, the movie presented a climax where the Losers discover they can harm the creature by believing it is weak and small. The psychic duel was transformed into a sequence of the adult characters shouting insults at the monster, literally bullying it into submission until it physically shrinks and its heart can be crushed.
IT: Welcome to Derry now has a unique chance to correct this mistake. By framing the story around a military operation attempting to understand and capture Pennywise, the series has created a logical narrative path to explore the creature’s origins. The scientific and paranormal investigation at the heart of Operation Precept can delve into the weirder elements of King’s lore, such as the Macroverse and the true nature of the Deadlights. This approach allows the show to steer closer to the book’s cosmic horror, depicting the entity’s power through psychological torment, surreal visions, and the slow descent into madness of those who study it. This would do justice to the incomprehensible evil that has always been at the heart of King’s masterpiece.
New episodes of IT: Welcome to Derry premiere on HBO every Sunday.
What do you hope to see when the military finally uncovers the truth about Pennywise? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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Image courtesy of HBO
IT: Welcome to Derry was marketed as an origin story for the shapeshifting entity most famously known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård). The premiere episode of the prequel series, however, focused instead on the formation of a new Losers’ Club and a secretive Air Force base established on the outskirts of the cursed
The post Welcome to Derry Teases Pennywise’s True Form & Origins (but Must Avoid 1 IT Mistake) appeared first on ComicBook.com. ComicBook.comRead More