Spoilers follow IT: Welcome to Derry Episodes 1-7.
Episode 7 of It: Welcome to Derry introduced us to Bob Gray, a character who was briefly glimpsed in It Chapter Two but is of great interest to fans of Stephen King. Essentially, Bob Gray is the original human Pennywise, whose form He began to take to prey on the children of Derry. Now Welcome to Derry is finally telling its story.
Andy Muschietti, who developed “Welcome to Derry” with his sister/producing partner Barbara Muschietti and co-showrunner Jason Fuchs, told me that the goal of the series was always to unearth the “big mysteries” presented in Stephen King's book. He felt that King intentionally created an incomplete mystery with mysterious characters and events that could have been explored further. And chief among them was the character of Bob Gray, aka the man who later became Pennywise.
Bob Gray, the man behind the clown
“Bob Gray, the man behind the clown,” Andy said. “[He’s] an absolute mystery. This has been mentioned a couple of times [in the book]but there’s never any fleshing out of the story.”
Barbara notes that the mystery of the character contributed greatly to the creation of the series, and it all stemmed from conversations between Andy and Pennywise actor Bill Skarsgård while filming It Chapter 2 in 2018.
“Bill did a little tribute to Bob Gray and he loved it,” she recalls. “So they started talking about looking into it. And when the pandemic hit, Andy said, 'Let's start talking about it!'”
As the pandemic allowed time to develop, Muschietti and Skarsgård began to really delve into what Bob Gray's story might be, since it had never been revealed by Stephen King. Yes we know about Pennywise's Cosmic Originsand the dancing clown? Not so much. Until now.
“It's more like Bob Gray incarnate. [in IT Chapter Two]it's the epitome of IT, so you can see the evil behind it,” Andy said. “But who really was Bob Gray?” It all started there. And then as I got deeper into it, I went back to all the interludes and all the cataclysmic events that are depicted in each of the cycles. And I saw a story there, a hidden story that was worth telling. And of course there were many inventions that were part of this excitement. It's like, “OK, we're going to fill in the gaps, put all the missing pieces of the puzzle together.”
The Origin of Pennywise's Human Self
The approach then was to find out who the human character was. First, the writers and producers knew they didn't want him to be a psychopath. And they wanted to find the character's humanity.
“It has a certain darkness and eeriness about it,” Andy said. “But we presented him as a harmless person, essentially, for whom life hasn't worked out very well. He has a daughter and he wants to do well. And then when Bill finally came along, we started exploring the character in great detail, and he said, 'This is all well and good, but I don't think we should do such a wholesome thing.' And that's where the alcoholism came in, the grumpiness. And it's very subtle. You see a character taking a sip from a flask when they go down.” curtains. And there is a reason for this – the death of his wife.”
This is the backstory that Muschietti, Skarsgård and the show's writers created for the character, and which we'll really get to experience in episode seven.
“Bob Gray was a big clown in a big circus,” Andy explains. “One day he lost his wife, and that kind of pushed him into a downward spiral where he became an alcoholic. He got fired from the circus, and after a while he was rehired in a small traveling circus, and we have a scene where he's basically talking to his daughter and reminiscing about the good old days. And even though he's in bad shape now because he's an alcoholic, he has hope. And Ingrid, his little daughter, keeps that hope alive.” for him.”
Of course, Ingrid is Ingrid Kersh, aka Periwinkle (another Welcome to Derry invention), whose adult version is played by Madeleine Stowe. And of course, her father's disappearance after his encounter with IT brings her life to a not-so-good place, to say the least. But that's another story.
Maturin, “The Dark Tower Connection” and “Welcome to Derry”, seasons 2 and 3
The Muschiettis told me that when they started putting together the story for the show, they had a lot more than they could fit into one season. So, a three-season plan was developed as the writers had to cut out chunks of the story and save them for future seasons.
“It's a bigger story that will span the next two seasons,” Andy explained. “It talks more about the reason for IT, what IT is, what IT wants and why IT is on this plane of existence? But it's also a look at the larger mythology that looms on the other side. The thing about the book is that it's very much told from the point of view of our human characters. There are only two or three moments where through the Maturin Root or the Smoke Hole we get access to other planes of reality, but it's very rare. It's just very, very low-key, but it does connect to others Stephen King stuff, mostly with The Dark Tower. And there's so much about Maturin the Turtle. That's one of the things that appeals to people who love those movies, so we're going to explore a lot of the mythology over the next two seasons.”
IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 8, season 1 finale Release date and time
The final episode of the first season of It: Welcome to Derry debuts on HBO Max at 6:00 pm PT/9:00 pm ET on Sunday, December 14th. Tell them Bob Gray sent you!
