It: Pennywise Cracks A Wicked Smile In Chilling First Look At Bill Skarsgard’s Trickster

Evil has a new face.

Mere hours after director Andy Muschietti rolled out a series of behind-the-scenes snaps, Entertainment Weekly has conjured up a fresh helping of nightmare fuel by unveiling Pennywise the Clown, Stephen King’s otherworldly trickster that will be descending onto Derry, Maine when New Line’s It reboot lands late next year.

Brought to life by Hemlock Grove star Bill Skarsgard, Janie Bryant – the Emmy-winning costume designer behind Deadwood and Mad Men – offered up some fascinating details to EW regarding Pennywise’s period garb.

There’s an antique tinge to the Harlequin costume, and it’s immediately clear that King’s timeless monstrosity hails from another time altogether. Ditching the lurid appearance of modern clowns, the neat, doll-like design Bryant that has cooked up is enough to send chills down your spine – a sensation that will surely be amplified ten-fold when we see Pennywise in motion come 2017.

“The costume definitely incorporates all these otherworldly past lives, if you will. He is definitely a clown from a different time. There is almost a doll-like quality to the costume. The pants being short, the high waistline of the jacket, and the fit of the costume is a very important element. It gives the character a child-like quality. It makes him almost like a shadow.”

Aligned as the opening chapter of a two-part scarefest, Andy Muschietti’s It is pegged for release on September 8, 2017, when Bill Skarsgard will unleash a new breed of horror upon a relatively unknown cast of up-and-comers that comprises Jaeden Lieberher, Finn Wolfhard, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, and Jeremy Ray Taylor.