IT: Welcome to Derry has revealed a first look at Pennywise's human alias, Bob Gray. The shapeshifting being known as 'it' in the Stephen King universe has taken many forms throughout the HBO adaptation, but is most commonly recognized for its clown form, Pennywise. One thing that IT: Welcome to Derry promises to do as it delves into the past active cycles of It, is to uncover more of the backstory of the evil creature and determine why Pennywise is its dominant form.
The first season of IT: Welcome to Derry takes place in 1962, 27 years before the events of IT and 54 years before IT: Chapter Two. This journey into the past has already revealed some key information about the mysterious entity, such as the connection between Pennywise and the town of Derry. Looking ahead at the final episodes of IT: Welcome to Derry Season 1, the series still has plenty of questions to answer about Pennywise, and a new trailer hints at some that will be answered.
IT: Welcome to Derry Unveils Pennywise as a Human
IT: Welcome to Derry has thus far shown It in a variety of forms (but has held off on showing it in its typical Pennywise attire). The mid-season trailer for IT: Welcome to Derry has revealed that Pennywise is not the only form the creature will take in the second half of the season.
A scene in the trailer depicting Lilly Bainbridge (Clara Stack) flicking through an old photo album reveals an image of Pennywise in his human form. The character (played by Bill Skarsgård) is shown in a black-and-white photo as an older balding man wearing a suit and tie. Despite being free of his clown makeup, the character is still clearly Pennywise, and this is likely to be Bob Gray, the character's human alter ego.
In King's novel, Pennywise sometimes refers to itself as Robert "Bob" Gray, suggesting that they are the same. However, it's never been clear whether Bob Gray was a real person from the town of Derry whom Pennywise modeled its human form after, or whether Bob Gray was an original creation of the creature that it used to assimilate itself among humans. It seems that IT: Welcome to Derry may finally answer some of these questions.
Bob Gray has been hinted at once before in Andy Muschietti's IT franchise, appearing in a photograph in IT: Chapter Two. While visiting the residence of Mrs. Kersh (Joan Gregson), Beverly (Jessica Chastain) comes across an old portrait of a man and a young girl standing in front of a wagon, labelled "The Great Pennywise, the Dancing Clown." While looking at the image, Mrs Kersh tells Beverly about her father, who "came to this country with fourteen dollars in his pocket," and "joined the circus."
This suggests that Mrs. Kersh was the daughter of Bob Gray. However, when Mrs Kersh transforms into a new monstrous form later in the scene, it's confirmed that she is just another embodiment of It, designed to induce fear in the entity's victims.
IT: Welcome to Derry Will Reveal More About the Bob Gray Mystery
The connection between Pennywise and Bob Gray remains unresolved, and the reveal of Skarsgard in his human form as Gray in IT: Welcome to Derry's trailer indicates that the HBO Max series will get to the bottom of it.
One of the fascinating elements of Bob Gray's inclusion in the IT: Welcome to Derry trailer is that the image Lilly is looking at is captioned "Cumberland County, ME, 1908." This sets up two interesting connections.
One is that Cumberland County in Maine has typically been the fictional setting of Stephen King's short story Jerusalem's Lot, which also deals with a sinister, demonic entity. The presence of Bob Gray in Cumberland County is another subtle indication of the shared universe of Stephen King stories, which was already present in IT: Welcome to Derry, albeit in a different way, through the inclusion of The Shining's Dick Halloran.
Another important note is the 1908 date on the photograph, which is one of Pennywise's active cycles. IT lore establishes that the entity reactivates to feed every 27 years, and 1908 places this cycle as two before the current 1962 cycle that IT: Welcome to Derry is exploring.
The producers of IT: Welcome to Derry have confirmed a three-season plan for the series, which will include a narrative that goes back in time to explore Pennywise's activities in 1935 and 1908. This hint at Bob Gray in 1908 could be considered a foreshadowing of what might be explored in Season 3 of IT: Welcome to Derry (assuming the series is renewed).
This might also indicate that fans will only get some clues around Bob Gray's history in IT: Welcome to Derry, but the character will be more fully explored in Season 3 of the show, which will be set in 1908.
