A new IT featurette takes a look at the making of Bill Skarsgard's Pennywise. While the horror genre has played host to plenty of terrifying clowns, arguably the most iconic in history is Pennywise the Dancing Clown, created by legendary author Stephen King for his 1986 novel IT. Of course, when most people think of Pennywise, the first image they conjure up is probably still of Tim Curry's very memorable portrayal of the character in IT's 1990 TV miniseries adaptation.

Going into director Andy Muschetti's newly-released theatrical adaptation of IT, one of the biggest question marks was whether Bill Skarsgard could successfully manage to make the Pennywise role his own, and somehow fill Curry's floppy clown shoes. While whether Skarsgard surpassed Curry is very much a matter of individual opinion, what most viewers of the new IT do seem to agree on is that Skarsgard's version of Pennywise is amazing in his own right, and deserves to at least join Curry's rendition in the annals of all-time scariest killer clowns.

Related: 15 Things From The IT Book They Couldn’t Show In The Movie

While it'll be at least a few months until IT comes home - hopefully complete with lots of special features - a new featurette takes a behind-the-scenes look at what went into creating Skarsgard's Pennywise. The complete featurette can be seen above, and while it's sadly not very long, it's still a pretty cool little treat for fans. Stephen King himself even pops up to offer praise to Skarsgard, and it's hard to think of a better seal of approval than that.

Pennywise Attacking Eddie in IT

In an interesting note from the above video, the young Losers' Club cast was apparently kept apart from Skarsgard on set until the filming of the projector scene, in which the entire group sees Pennywise together for the first time. This allowed Muschetti to get the actors' real reactions to seeing Skarsgard in his full Pennywise glory for the first time. Similarly, the young cast of the 1990 miniseries was also mostly kept apart from Curry, so as to prevent them from getting too comfortable around him.

While reviews of Skarsgard's Pennywise have been for the most part extremely positive, one complaint some have had is that he just isn't given enough to do. While Pennywise appears frequently during the film, his time on-screen is still quite brief overall, with the character also sometimes being realized via CGI. With stated plans to delve into Pennywise's origins and backstory in the sequel, here's hoping Skarsgard gets more chances to shine.

NEXT: 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Pennywise The Clown

Source: Warner Bros.

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