Bill Skarsgård Reveals His Surprising Reason for Passing on It: Welcome to Derry

So, Bill Skarsgård is officially back in the clown suit for It: Welcome to Derry—but apparently, that wasn’t a total no-brainer for him. The guy who made Pennywise terrifying enough to ruin a whole generation’s sleep actually hesitated about rejoining the party. And honestly, it wasn’t the paycheck or the creepy clown makeup giving him pause. There’s a good story here.

Back to Derry—But Not Without Reservations

Quick refresher: Skarsgård first showed up as Stephen King's cosmic child-eater in Andy Muschietti’s 2017 It and its 2019 sequel. Both films were big hits, and Skarsgård’s ultracreepy performance is basically already Hollywood horror legend.

Now, HBO has a prequel series in the works, taking us back to Derry in the 1960s and digging into what exactly is going on under that clown paint (and, apparently, the cosmic nightmare side of Pennywise). Andy Muschietti is involved again, but just because you get the old band back together doesn’t mean everyone’s excited for the reunion tour.

Why Skarsgård Needed Convincing

• His first instinct? Pretty skeptical. He told ScreenRant he was 'more hesitant about it going into it than going out of it.' Fair enough—two hit movies is a good legacy, and he was worried about 'milking this one out with a TV show.'
• Big concern: could the show actually meet the standard they’d set with the movies? Or would it just be one of those spin-offs that make you wish they’d left well enough alone?
• What changed his mind: Muschietti and the creative team brought him some specific material for the series, and it sounds like they pitched him on genuinely new stuff for Pennywise to do and new sides to explore.

To quote Skarsgård, since this sums it up perfectly:

'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. 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.'

Basically, he wasn’t on board for more of the same—but new cracks in the cosmic clown’s mask? That he could get behind.

Should They Even Do It?

Look, Skarsgård’s nerves probably echo plenty of fans’ feelings, especially after all the arguments about It: Chapter Two and whether we needed more from this story. But apparently Stephen King himself is on record saying the new series is 'amazing.' That has to take some of the pressure off—just not all of it.

So if you were wondering if Skarsgård cashed in without thinking twice, that’s not at all how it went down. He weighed the risk of clown fatigue and, for now, seems pretty confident there’s more nightmare fuel left in the well.