Exclusive: How It's Bill Skarsgård changed Pennywise for Chapter Two

For It Chapter Two, director Andy Muschietti really wanted to take Bill Skarsgård's demonic clown Pennywise to the next level – but how do you do that after already leaving audiences completely freaked out with the first instalment?

Well, it turns out it's a lot easier when you have a talented actor behind the nightmarish make-up and prosthetics.

Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy, Muschietti revealed how Skarsgård "intensified" the horror of his performance by focusing on Pennywise's motivations and personal vendetta against the Derry heroes who defeated him 27 years ago.

Related: It Chapter Two review: Pennywise is back in brilliantly creepy horror sequel

"I wanted to magnify this character in the second part, and to be even more of a threat – a bigger threat," said the director. "Bill is restless, also. So he wanted to bring something new to the table. And the new things at the table basically have to do with Pennywise's motivations.

"He's more vindictive. Now it's personal. So everything bad that Pennywise was, now it's intensified.

"So he comes with a very definite need to focus on our heroes. He's more perverse. He's more manipulative. He's a son of a bitch, all over... He's more dangerous, you know? And in the execution of this movie, there's more of a body count," he laughed. "There's more body counts, and there's more gruesome deaths."

He added: "So the threat, and the ability to kill our heroes... I had to give him a threat. And that's why we see him doing unspeakable things."

The director also explained to us that they had to make a number of changes from Stephen King's book, because the structure of the novel is much "looser".

"All the events happen in a longer amount of time," he said. "They're not necessarily consequential. All of that, you have to achieve in a film narrative. Everything has to be very tight."

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It Chapter Two is in cinemas on September 6.

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Chris Edwards

Chris Edwards is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy.

Ian Sandwell

Movies Editor, Digital Spy  Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor.  Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world.   After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.