Bill Skarsgård almost didn't play Pennywise in 'It: Welcome to Derry'

Bill Skarsgård has shared that he was not interested to play the character of Pennywise the dancing clown in IT: Welcome to Derry series.

The 35-year-old Swedish actor first played the role of the evil clown in Andrés Muschietti's 2017 movie It: Chapter One. The film is based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name.

Later, Bill reprised the role in the sequel of the horror movie in 2019.

In 2025, Creator Andy announced the HBO Max series belonging to the It franchise.

For the unversed, the Nosferatu actor was not keen on playing Pennywise again. He felt that the show might not get enough popularity and the success he got from playing the clown in the movies will also be affected.

Later, when he understood the plan and concept behind Welcome To Derry, Bill got convinced himself.

In an interview with ScreenRant, The Crow actor confessed that he felt like there were still some parts of the character that were left unexplored.

He added, "I feel that, in the end, we explored some parts of Pennywise that we hadn't seen before or hadn't done. Andy and I always have fun together, and I think that we did those aspects of it.”

Skarsgård continued, “Even with Pennywise's performance, there was like, 'Okay, here's a juicy scene, and you see something else from Pennywise, or more of him.' I had fun with those scenes, for sure.”