Summary

• Pennywise is a recurring character and urban legend in Stephen King's shared universe, appearing in multiple works.
• Pennywise is indirectly referenced in works like "Gray Matter" and "Dreamcatcher," connecting him to other stories.
• Pennywise's presence is felt in the towns of Derry and Castle Rock, and his origins connect to aliens and otherworldly beings.

One of the quiet joys of reading Stephen King's works is realizing that almost all of them occupy a shared reality. Some of it comes with his characters — supporting figures in particular — who jump from novel to novel, but it also entails places, situations, and similar Easter eggs referencing earlier works. TV and movie adaptations of his books make note of it from time to time — particularly the Castle Rock TV series, which was predicated on the interconnectivity of it all — but most are concerned with telling their own stories rather than acknowledging others. King's writing, on the other hand, is very different, with numerous cross-references directing readers to other works. Unless the apocalypse is involved, most of his works seem to take place in the same universe.

That extends to Pennywise, one of King's most celebrated creations and the go-to pop culture source for demonic clowns everywhere. The monster first graced the pages of King's opus IT and benefited from two brilliant Pennywise performances in a pair of adaptions: Tim Curry's in the 1990 ABC miniseries and Bill Skarsgård's in the two-part movie adaptation from 2017 and 2019. With the prequel series Welcome to Derry on the way — covering the origins of Pennywise and his early incursions in the titular Maine town — it's worth noting the number of times he's been mentioned in other King works. A brief list of each one follows — omitting IT for obvious reasons — arranged in order of publication. Many of them have been adapted to movies or television shows, and interestingly enough, none of them involved Pennywise directly, only second-hand references. That's well in keeping with the demonic clown, who exists in King's world as a kind of urban legend that the young protagonists in IT need to piece together in order to defeat him.

Updated by Robert Vaux on January 9, 2024: The article has been expanded to include a pair of new entries — notably, Gwendy's Final Task and the movie Maximum Overdrive. In addition, the formatting has been updated to match CBR's current standards.

"Gray Matter" Mentions Giant Spiders in the Sewer

One of King's earliest published works concerned an entirely different kind of monster: a man turning into a giant blob after ingesting a bad can of beer. It was originally published in Cavalier magazine in 1973 and later appeared in King's 1978 collection Night Shift. A well-regarded adaptation served as the series premiere for the Creepshow anthology in 2019. In the early parts of the story, one of the characters relates an apocryphal story about a giant spider discovered in the sewers: as big as a dog and feeding on cats and similar small animals. The description matches Pennywise's true form and habitat, and while it's unlikely King had the story planned out that early, it suggests the beginning of the creative process that would eventually become IT.

Maximum Overdrive Delivers a Subtle Easter Egg

Maximum Overdrive is the most unique entry on the list; it's a notoriously bad movie that King wrote and directed in his only stint behind the camera to date. It's based on his short story, "Trucks," which, like "Gray Matter," was first published in 1973 and eventually appeared in Night Shift. It focuses on a calamity in which the machines of the world have become sentient and declare war on their creators. The story doesn't involve Pennywise in any form, focusing on the occupants of a truck stop under siege by a fleet of big-rigs. The 1986 film adaptation provides it with an explanation (alien invaders hoping to wipe humanity out with our own machines), a happy ending, and a convenient collection of military weapons in the truck-stop basement for the humans to fight back. Its dubious reputation speaks for itself.

The Pennywise reference comes early on in the film during the initial wave of homicidal machine attacks. Young protagonist Deke Keller pedals his bike through a suburban neighborhood whose occupants have been murdered by their own consumer tech. As he stops to take it in, a wagon and a child's toy lie behind him. The toy is wedged into a sewer grate, suggesting that its owner got dragged in by something. It would only be coincidental, but the timing suggests a deliberate reference; the film was released July 25, 1986, less than two months before IT hit the bookshelves. Pennywise was almost certainly on King's mind while shooting the movie, and he may have slipped in a little reference.

The Tommyknockers's Hero Hallucinates a Familiar Clown

One of the first novels King published after IT involved a crashed alien spaceship slowly transforming the residents of a nearby town into monsters. Its protagonist, Tommy Jacobs, ventures into Derry at one point but is actively hallucinating and imagines he sees a clown leering at him from a sewer grate. It's an obvious nod to Pennywise, though the hero's unreliable mental state suggests that it could all be in his head. It's worth noting, however, that Pennywise's canonical origins are from beyond the stars, giving him a possible (if loose) connection to the aliens in The Tommyknockers.

Insomnia Takes Place in Derry

King's novel about sleeplessness and the unsettling things it uncovers is set in Derry and references to the events of IT are peppered throughout the text. Most notably, the novel includes a brief cameo by Mike Hanlon, a member of The Losers Club and one of IT's central protagonists. And it references the storm that destroys the town of Derry after Pennywise's defeat at the end of the novel. In addition, the creatures in Insomnia serve the Crimson King, the primary antagonist in King's Dark Tower series, and it is suggested that Pennywise shares their background. They may even be the same entity since both feature "Deadlights," which Insomnia references as well.

Dreamcatcher References the Derry Murders

Like The Tommyknockers, Dreamcatcher involves an incursion from outer space and has little to do with Pennywise, at least directly. It does take place near Derry, however, and directly mentions the events of IT. One of its protagonists, Jonesy, states that the Derry murders were explained away as being done by a serial killer who liked to dress as a clown. The town also contains a plaque to the Losers Club, which has been vandalized with the tag "Pennywise Lives!" — suggesting that the clown may not be gone after all. In addition, the novel's space aliens may be obliquely linked to Pennywise's origins from somewhere besides Earth.

11/22/63 Runs into The Losers Club

King's time-travel thriller involves a portal from the modern era to 1958, where a pair of friends travel to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy. 11.22.63 was adapted into a miniseries that streamed on Hulu in 2016. In the course of the story, the protagonists return to the Derry of the past and interact with Losers Club members Beverly Marsh and Richie Tozier, who are in the midst of their summer-long battle with Pennywise. The story also contains a brief reference to Patrick Hockstetter, who bullies members of the Losers Club in IT and eventually becomes one of Pennywise's victims.

Elevation Features a Band with a Familiar Name

Elevation is set in another of King's noted towns — Castle Rock — and mainly concerns itself with a man suffering from a mysterious wasting disease. However, it still finds a way to slip in reference to Pennywise. The local high school's Halloween dance features a local band named Big Top, which changes its name to Pennywise and the Clowns for the night.

Gwendy's Final Task Suggests That Pennywise Isn't Dead

Gwendy's Final Task is the culminating chapter in the Gwendy series of novellas, which King co-wrote with author Richard Chizmar. The title character is a resident of Castle Rock who gains possession of a "button box" that rewards her for taking care of it while causing all manner of terrible events in the rest of the world. The final chapter finds Gwendy, now a U.S. Senator, taking the box to outer space in order to destroy it forever. The book shuttles back and forth in time and includes several sections set in Derry. They maintain that the town has a cursed or haunted aspect and even suggest that Pennywise is still alive; several residents make cryptic references to "the clown."