Even though Pennywise died in IT: Chapter Two, there are still several ways that the killer clown can return in IT Chapter Three if the franchise continues. Played to perfection by Bill Skarsgård, beginning in IT, the shape-shifting eldritch lurked under the sewers of Derry, Maine, emerging every 27 years as a clown to feed off the fear of children. Presumed defeated by the Losers Club, in both the film adaptation of IT and in the literary universe where horror author Stephen King created him, it's not difficult to believe that the iconic villain could be transmogrified into some new horror that could come back.
The monster clown was an ancient evil that could transform himself into the thing his victims feared most, making him a powerful entity with an ambiguous narrative agency. While King's 1,138-page door stopper seems thoroughly explored in the two-part film adaptation, there's always Pennywise's origins to be explained, perhaps even in a prequel. He's as popular as ever now, and the movies could be the start of a franchise in the vein of Halloween or Friday the 13th. If King or anyone else wanted to bring him back, there are plenty of ways to make it happen, including magical resources in his shared universes.
Pennywise Could Come Back Through Offspring From The Dark Tower
King is known for his shared literary universes, with references and callbacks embedded in his books, providing a connective narrative tissue, particularly between IT and The Dark Tower series. For instance, one of the Guardians of the Beams who watch the Dark Tower, the enormous turtle Maturin, features in IT as a benevolent force for good who watches over the Losers Club. Though Pennywise isn't seen in The Dark Tower series, he acts as an unseen malevolent force.
In one of King's Dark Tower novels, Ben destroys eggs thought to be laid by IT but misses one, and the offspring hatches after its mother (Pennywise) is destroyed, taking on the form of Dandelo, who bears a striking resemblance to its parent entity in powers (and the form of a giant beetle). At the conclusion of IT, Pennywise surprises the Losers Club by taking on the appearance of a giant egg-laying spider, implying it could have offspring.
Pennywise' Species Has Regenerative Powers
When not taking the form of Pennywise, It is a Glamour, a billions-year-old creature from a dimension far beyond Earth. Every 27 years, It rouses from a slumber deep below the sewers of Derry and feeds on children, salting the "meat" with fear by appearing to them as any number of horrible, nightmarish visions. Every time It wakes up, mass murders and violent weather events become the norm, and they end just as quickly as they begin. Given that Bill and the rest of the Losers Club thought they had defeated Pennywise in IT only to find that the Eater of Worlds had returned when they were adults 27 years later, a pattern of regeneration was already established. It first awoke in 1715 and terrorized Derry off and on through the centuries, with nothing able to stop the creature and the townspeople often complicit with It's crimes. Therefore, it's not too far-fetched for Pennywise to return after another sleeping spell.
Pennywise Isn't Bound By The Rules Of Physics
It doesn't have any understanding of the rules of physics or how physics work in general, giving it an element of agency. It can change into a clown-like Pennywise or something that exists outside reality, unrestricted by time or space. Because a child's imagination is exceptionally creative, when it stalks children, its forms can become truly surreal. It can even duplicate itself and exist in multiple different places at once.
What makes Pennywise so terrifying is how his powers work; he takes his inspiration from the minds of his victims and only follows the parameters his victims will accept. That's why it's imperative that children not believe what they see so that they can weaken his power. If they believe what they're seeing, then there's a possible loophole that It can exploit. If children don't think Pennywise is dead, there could be enough import placed on the power of suggestion.
Dreamcatcher Graffiti Hints Pennywise Is Alive After The Chüd Ritual
As in the case of The Dark Tower series, King has references to Pennywise in Dreamcatcher, which was turned into a film in 2003. As in IT, the book involves children from Maine who are irrevocably changed by a childhood experience and haunted as adults by a malevolent entity. In the novel, a statue shows graffiti connecting it to Pennywise several years after the Ritual of Chüd supposedly defeated him. Pennywise isn't the only character who pops up in King's books — the Losers Club is referenced in the first of many appearances.
Both times the ritual was enacted, Pennywise lulled the Losers Club into a false sense of security before unleashing a surprise attack. The presence of the graffiti in Dreamcatcher implies Pennywise survived or someone under his control is signaling his return. Either way, the Chüd Ritual efficacy has been questioned twice, and there's a distinct possibility that it wasn't enough to destroy It's essence forever.
The Losers Club Destroyed The Heart, Not The Deadlights
The Deadlights can be viewed as the true form of It when it's not physically manifested as Pennywise. Outside the realm of comprehension, they cause a human to go insane if looked at directly. When the Losers Club find Pennywise in IT: Chapter Two, Richie comes the closest to perceiving the Deadlights in all their glory, but the group doesn't effectively destroy them. When Pennywise assumes the form of a spider, they destroy its heart, not the Deadlights.
IT's movie Deadlights can create confusion, as the Deadlights are also the connection between Pennywise on Earth and the true It outside known space. Even though the Ritual of Chüd places the Losers Club close to It's astral form, unless the Deadlights are fully destroyed, It can still rip their souls out and torture them forever while their bodies remain on Earth. Given that the Losers Club may not have killed the Deadlights, It is simply left waiting to return to the void.
Pennywise Could Have Used Telepathic Powers To Make Everyone Think He Died
In both IT and IT: Chapter Two, Pennywise is seen to have incredible psychic powers, often reaching characters through dreams and haunting their minds with frightening visions or even just simple phrases. His mental connection to his victims is vital to manipulating them, and there's no reason he couldn't have used this ability to make the Losers Club think they had killed him off for good. After all, one of the reasons Pennywise never leaves Derry is because it's entirely under his thrall.
According to King's novel, since the early 18th century Pennywise has been able to wreak havoc on Derry every 27 years, and the townspeople don't do anything about it. Groups of settlers get slaughtered, lumberjacks get murdered, and swathes of children go missing, but nothing is adequately investigated. This is because Pennywise alters the townspeople's awareness, which helps mask its malevolent activities and isolate victims.
It Can Visit Other Universes
It only assumed a physical form on Earth, most often as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, but if it was truly found to be defeated by the Losers Club, then even if it couldn't return to this universe, it could pop up in other universes. It is from a dimension King named the Macroverse, which surrounds the known universe and contains other ancient beings of similar power, such as Maturin. From the Macroverse, it can hunt anywhere that there is fear.
It could even become part of a group of trans-dimensional beings that travel King's multiverse, evoking nightmares and feeding off of humans in other King stories. Much like in the series Castle Rock, It could go on to be incorporated into other narratives or perhaps even crossover into other dimensions like the Cenobites in Hellraiser. The possibilities are endless, even if Pennywise never appears in another IT movie.
An Origin Story To Explain His Powers And The Importance Of Derry
If IT: Chapter Three happens, it would make sense for it to be an origin story to explain the powers Pennywise has and his interest in Derry specifically. There's still a lot of mystery shrouding the killer clown's identity, but the IT prequel show Welcome to Derry might cover anything a movie might explore. Details about exactly what the series will focus on are sparse, but several members of the creative team involved with the IT movies are expected to come on board.
It's heavily implied that It appeared in King's short story Gray Matter, in which a man encounters a spider "the size of a dog" in the sewers of Bangor over a decade before he wrote IT. If Pennywise isn't restricted to returning to Derry and interacting with the Losers Club for IT: Chapter Three, then the character can have much more artistic freedom. The possibilities are as endless as It's many changing shapes.