Horror master Stephen King's universe is expansive, which makes a lot of sense. The prolific author has crafted a total of 66 novels, with 63 under his real name and three under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman. What a lot of folks may not know is that these works of terror and fantasy are intertwined with each other in subtle ways, most of which reveal themselves in The Dark Tower series. One of his masterpieces, however, has a much deeper connection to The Dark Tower than others: Pennywise, the Dancing Clown from It.
King first began crafting It in 1981, not long after he completed another of his classics, Pet Sematary, which wasn't published until the fall of 1986. The original manuscript of the book about a savage killer clown was massive, clocking in at 1,100 pages. It's one of his longest books. The story follows a group of seven kids growing up in Derry, Maine, who call themselves the Losers' Club, who go head-to-head with an ancient, horrifying, cosmic shape-shifting entity that emerges from the sewers of the town every 27 years to feed off the town's children.
Bill Skarsgard Reveals IT: Welcome to Derry Will Be 'Hardcore'
Bill Skarsgard returns to his role as Pennywise in the prequel IT: Welcome to Derry and the actor has teased it will not be a light viewing experience
Pennywise is not only the main antagonist of It, but is a significant figure in King's magnum opus, The Dark Tower, which serves as the spine for the author's multiverse. Here's a look at how this Lovecraft-inspired entity is connected to King's fantasy series on a cosmic, narrative, and mythological level.
Pennywise is a Glamour, Like Many Creatures in the Towerverse
In King's novel, It, which has been adapted into a hit miniseries and a smash duology on the big screen, readers find out that Pennywise is no ordinary clown. Nor is he just another boogieman that goes bump in the night. He's something so much more terrifying. The creepy clown is a "Glamour," which is a shape-shifting entity that feeds off of fear and will manifest itself according to the worst nightmares of its prey.
In The Dark Tower, a Glamour like Pennywise is a class of extremely ancient beings, much like the creatures that populate the world of H.P. Lovecraft. It reveals that Pennywise is an entity that originated in another dimension outside of time and space, called the "Macroverse." Glamours enter the main Earth-reality of King's multiverse through "thinnies," which are tears in the fabric of space and time, another element that features prominently in The Dark Tower.
In The Dark Tower, the Macroverse dimension is known as the Todash Darkness, a void that exists between worlds. It is home to beings called the Prim, or the Old Ones. As readers learn in the third act of It, Pennywise is one of the Old Ones. He entered the earth's dimension through a thinny and chose the area where, millions of years later, Derry, Maine would be established.
Maturin the Turtle is a Connection Point Between It and The Dark Tower
Pennywise has a cosmic opposite — several, in fact. But his most prominant one is Maturin, an ancient turtle who serves as a sort of guardian and spiritual counterbalance to the horrifying Glamour. He's also featured in The Dark Tower. King describes Martin as one of the Guardians of the Beam, a group of twelve godlike animals that have been tasked with upholding the multiverse's structure.
Maturin provides guidance to the Losers' Club in the novel, when they are attempting to defeat Pennywise through the Ritual of Chud. His role and the aid he offers is similar in nature to the aid that Roland Deschaine, the main character of The Dark Tower, receives from the guardians and by ka.
Are Pennywise and the Crimson King Related?
While it's not directly confirmed, many fans of the King universe have created theories to suggest that the big bad in The Dark Tower series, the Crimson King, might either be related to Pennywise. Others have speculated that the shape-shifting entity is one of the Crimson King's servants. The two characters have plenty in common to suggest a link.
Both characters are representative of chaos and interdimensional evil, and are determined to corrupt, feed, and destroy reality. Both beings are connected to the Prim, which is the primordial chaos that exists beyond the Tower. It's also possible that Pennywise is a lesser entity that was created by the same cosmic darkness that gave birth to the Crimson King.
It's primary villain, Pennywise, is more than a clown, which is already the subject of many phobias and fears across the world. And he's not just a sewer-dwelling beast terrorizing children in a small town on the East Coast. He's symbolic of Stephen King's mythology of chaos, born from the same substance as the cosmic threats in the realm of The Dark Tower. That's what makes him the fabric of what nightmares are made of.
- Release Date
- September 8, 2017
- Runtime
- 135 minutes
- Director
- Andy Muschietti
- Writers
- Cary Joji Fukunaga, Gary Dauberman, Chase Palmer
- Producers
- David Katzenberg, Roy Lee, Seth Grahame-Smith, Bárbara Muschietti, Dan Lin
- Franchise(s)
- IT
Cast
-
Bill SkarsgårdPennywise -
Sophia LillisBeverly Marsh
