HBO Max just announced their upcoming It prequel series, Welcome to Derry, is in early production. It's said to tell the origin story of Pennywise the Clown, and while it's currently unknown who will be portraying the iconic character this time around, it's the perfect time to look back at Pennywise's original TV portrayal by Tim Curry. Curry was incredible as the monster in the '90s, which makes one wonder how the actor felt about Bill Skarsgård taking the mantle.
It's first on-screen adaptation was with the 1990 miniseries, which only had two episodes. Regardless of its length, though, Curry's performance as Pennywise became renowned for its creepiness, and the show terrified viewers at the time. Unfortunately, a look back reveals the episodes don't hold up well, with many of the scares appearing comical by today's standards, but Curry still remains the shows saving grace.
Years later, with the announcement of the 2017 It remake, Skarsgård was set to take the role of the Stephen King character. Releasing 17 years after the original, many fans wondered how Curry felt about a new actor taking over, which prompted ScreenGeek to ask Curry about his opinion. "Well, I like Bill Skarsgård very much, I think he's very clever," he said. With Curry only going off of the trailers, he didn't have much to say on the performance itself, but he was intrigued by the use of modern effects, as his classic design was nothing more than coats of makeup and prosthetics. He went on to say, "It's not an obvious clown face at all. I've seen the trailer and you can't really see him at all. So I'm fascinated to see it."
The original ending for the It miniseries received criticism for its underwhelming climax, and Curry acknowledged that when discussing the new adaptation. "I hope they make the ending better because on [the TV version], I turned into some kind of giant spider and it was not very scary." Thankfully, the ending did improve, with It: Chapter 2 featuring a somewhat similar scene, but one that made the spider far more terrifying.
Skarsgård himself has spoken about all the changes and how the more recent movies were embraced for not copying what came before. During another ScreenGeek interview, he explained, "It was always important for me to reinvent It and reinterpret It in a different way. I sort of grew up with the Tim performance and I was very familiar with it and a huge fan as an actor, so my process of preparing the role was, 'okay this needs to be different.'"
And it's fair to say that most fans would agree, as Skarsgård's performance stands on its own and has even become the definitive Pennywise for many. But still, Curry will always be important to the It franchise for being the one to put Pennywise on the map first. Villains as terrifying as Curry's Pennywise don't come around often, and no matter how many people play the character, he will continue to be synonymous with it.