Stephen King Explains Why The Characters Of It Are So Endearing

Long before New Line’s It reboot evolved into a true box office monster, Stephen King admitted that he was pleasantly surprised by the end product.

And in a year that served up Gerald’s Game, 1922 and The Dark Tower, that’s an achievement in and of itself, as the latter adaptation is living proof that just because a film carries the King brand doesn’t necessarily guarantee that it’ll be a sure-fire hit – let alone spawn the next Hollywood franchise.

But enough about The Dark Tower; with It now available on Blu-ray and DVD, Pennywise is the talk of the town (again!), so perhaps Bill Skarsgård will have the chance to exorcize his demons, after all? One way or another, Stephen King offered some insight into the creation of the Losers’ Club as part of the film’s special features.

One of the things that I wanted to do in the novel, in all of my novels, is to create characters who are fundamentally decent by and large. That way, you don’t want them to be spam in a cabin. You want them to live and you want them to win.

And we couldn’t agree more. From the neurotic, walking hypochondriac that is Eddie Corcoran to Beverly Marsh, a victim of sexual and physical abuse on the cusp of adulthood, King’s horror classic is packed to the rafters when it comes to memorable characters – Pennywise falls into that bracket, too, but for all the wrong reasons.

Together, they form the Losers’ Club, a hardened group of wise-beyond-their-years teenagers who flip the bird at evil itself, Pennywise the Clown. Thanks to their combined heroics, Skarsgård’s entity has been banished for a full 27 years, and will only return when It: Chapter Two casts a shadow over theaters on September 6th, 2019.