Across the 65 books emblazoned with Stephen King's name and the 200 short stories sprinkled between them, there are good, bad, and truly monstrous characters that populate the worlds he created and opened to spill into others. With so much variety, everyone has a favorite that has more often than not jumped off the page and onto the screen to get a second life. There is one, however, above all, which the author feels will outlive them all, and will be a name which may even outlive his own, long after he is gone while there is a fear of being entertained.

In an interview with The New York TimesKing predicted that Pennywise the Clown, the evil child-eating monster from "It" would stand the test of time, even if it didn't. "When I was growing up, the great paperback writer was John D. Macdonald. "When he died, his work almost disappeared," King recalled. "I don't know what will happen to my things when I die, but one thing I'm pretty sure of is that Pennywise will be around." “Pennywise is really scary.” Beep, beep, Mr. King.

There's no doubt that King's tale of Derry's most monstrous resident has become an even stronger fear magnet thanks to the notable efforts of Tim Curry and Bill Skarsgård to take on the role of Pennywise in their respective adaptations of It in 1990 and 2017. with their balloon-popping, child-swallowing monsters, they have no doubt increased the number of coulrophobia sufferers (fear of clowns). But perhaps the secret to his still being terrifying is that just like the very nature of King's beast, Pennywise's trauma, and the losers who fight him, grows with us.

So many beloved nightmares of literature, film, and television are something to fear because they have time on their side. They are an evil that can only die through specific means, and it takes a worn out flawed hero (or heroes) to defeat them. Pennywise, however, is to King's team of brave children, the embodiment of the past they have blocked out. He's a button-nosed childhood trauma, tapping into fears they've struggled to forget, making him perhaps an even more famous monster that will indeed outlast his creator. Regardless of the disappointing end of the story (which even Tim Curry wasn't happy about)Pennywise's presence lingers in the minds of anyone who's looked down a storm drain or seen a stray red balloon float across the sky, and it's all the more likely to stay there given the plans for the killer clown's future.

Just like any horror, if the fear and dread manifested is strong enough to strike fear into the audience, it will last for years for generations to come and Pennywise is no exception. King's character is one that can be brought back to life for any brave soul who dares to step into the scary clown's shoes, whether it's another 27 years or so later and they join a limited legacy. which did an impressive job handling the creature.

While Tim Curry may be a favorite for /film readersSkarsgård's performance as Pennywise was certainly commendable and enough to equal guaranteeing his return in the yet-to-be-released Max anthology series, Welcome to Derry. That show will focus on the terrifying history that predates the "It" movies and see what kind of antics Pennywise got up to before Bill Denborough and the rest of the Losers Club decided to kill the big-bellied clown. With this effort alone, there's no doubt that Pennywise will still be cooling the barbs for a few more years, proving that when in doubt, there's always time to send the clown away.