Stephen King’s IT has been adapted into a miniseries and two theatrical movies, but all leave out an important reveal concerning Pennywise. Of course, Pennywise the Dancing Clown is merely the preferred form of IT‘s titular monster, an ancient alien being from another dimension that has been preying on humans for hundreds of years prior to the novel’s beginning. IT is a creature of tremendous power, and at some points appears impossible to defeat, but in all versions of the story, IT inevitably falls to the Losers’ Club.
IT’s primary weapon is its ability to shape-shift into just about anything, whether it be human, animal, or another kind of monster. In the book, IT even turns into Frankenstein’s Monster and the shark from Jaws, transformations likely left out of the miniseries and movies due to licensing reasons. While humans are unable to fully perceive its true form, the closest physical representation is a giant monstrous spider, which in the IT Chapter Two movie was modified to have Pennywise’s torso on top of its many legs.
In both the miniseries and movie adaptations of IT, the Loser’s Club does battle with this physical giant spider form, just as they do in the book, albeit without the many metaphysical diversions found in King’s prose. However, there’s a key late-game revelation that neither screen version saw fit to adapt.
IT: The Major Pennywise Reveal Both Movies Leave Out
When the Losers’ Club goes down into IT’s lair for their final battle in Stephen King’s book, they make a horrifying discovery: IT is female. Or the creature at least appears to be, as IT’s been laying eggs underground. Upon that revelation, the Losers’ secondary mission becomes destroying all IT’s eggs so that no baby monsters can hatch, in addition to killing their nemesis itself. Thankfully, the book makes it fairly clear that they accomplish this task. Then again, the hints that Pennywise might still be alive in subsequent books makes one wonder.
It’s not clear why the plot point of IT being female and laying eggs has been left out of both IT adaptations so far, but a logical conclusion is that while it’s a memorable development, it really doesn’t effect the story much. If anything it feels more like King trying to leave the door open for an IT sequel, as while it seems like the Losers crushed all the eggs, one could’ve conceivably been missed somehow. Considering King has no plans to write a sequel though, IT’s eggs appear destined to remain something only the author’s constant readers spend much time thinking about.
