Pennywise

In the miniseries, Pennywise first shows up to Georgie, in the storm drain, on a rainy afternoon in 1960. He offers the paper boat, tears the boy's arm off and leaves him to die. Later he scares each Loser with a different nightmare, like the photos that move. The seven realize It isn't human but an ancient creature that wakes roughly every 30 years.

In the sewer, the kids wound it with a trick of the imagination: Eddie's inhaler becomes acid, and Beverly's silver hits it. It flees, but returns in 1990.

In the 2017 film, Pennywise is Bill Skarsgård. He kills Georgie in October 1988 and, the following summer, haunts each Loser with a different fear: Ben's headless boy, Beverly's blood-spewing sink, Eddie's leper. He also gives Henry Bowers the madness he needed to become a killer.

The creature wakes every 27 years and takes children through Derry's sewers. When it faces the group in its lair, it is wounded and flees, beaten for now. The Losers swear to return if it resurfaces.

In 2016, Pennywise returns. He kills Adrian Mellon, watches the adult Losers reunite and uses each one's past against them. He helps Henry Bowers escape the psychiatric hospital, shows Richie and Eddie their old fears and kills a girl at a baseball game. When the Losers attempt the Ritual of Chüd, the creature reveals a giant form, half clown and half spider.

The plan fails until the Losers understand that It feeds on fear. They start belittling it with insults, and the creature shrinks until it becomes a crying baby. Its heart is crushed, and Pennywise laughs before dying.

In Welcome to Derry, the story goes back to 1962 and 1908. Bob Gray, the circus performer also played by Bill Skarsgård, is lured into the woods by something disguised as a child and never returns. In 1962, the series shows a town with an air base, racism in the streets and a creature waking again, and who tries to stop it.

Pennywise was born in Stephen King's novel It (1986). In the book, the creature has other forms besides the clown and a cosmic origin, which each adaptation shows in its own way.