Werewolf News readers who’ve seen Andrés Muschietti’s stellar film adaptation of “It” know that it had one glaring omission, and now thanks to artist Carlos Huante we know why.
The tale’s eponymous monster wears a variety of shapes, each attuned to its prey’s deepest fears, its favourite (and most iconic) being that of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. In Stephen King’s novel and the 1990 made-for-TV adaptation, one of those shapes was that of a werewolf.
When the trailer for Muschietti’s film arrived earlier this year, I took a particular scene as solid evidence that we’d see another depiction of Werewolf Pennywise. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Muschietti’s decision to slightly modernize the story’s setting included a revamp of It’s fear-based forms, leading to the absence of a few “classic monsters” (including the werewolf) and the introduction of some new ones. Effective, but kind of a bummer for werewolf fans.
Today, this Instagram post by artist Carlos Huante – who’s been designing creatures for Hollywood features for nearly three decades – revealed that Werewolf Pennywise was under consideration for the 2017 adaptation, but was ultimately excluded when “the money people shot it down”. The drawing is part of a set of commissions done in relation to Huante’s latest art book, Rasca, and shows what he might have pitched if the money people had decided to allocate some of the film’s USD $35 million budget to a lycanthrope with pom pom buttons.
I’d like to think that Huante’s vision of Werewolf Pennywise might still make an appearance in the second film, due out in 2019. Considering the first film’s astonishing box office success (USD $604.4 million and counting), I doubt funding will be an issue.
Special thanks to friend of Werewolf News (and kick-ass artist) Doruk Golcu for sharing the link with me!