While it didn’t make it into either the miniseries or movies, IT’s Pennywise memorably transforms into the shark from Jaws in Stephen King’s book. When it comes to screen adaptations of IT, there will always be a limit on what the titular shape-shifting monster can become. Pennywise the Dancing Clown is of course ITs preferred default form, and a horrifying one at that, played by Tim Curry in the 1990 ABC miniseries and Bill Skarsgard in Warner Bros.’ recent theatrical IT movies.
Elsewhere in the miniseries and movies, IT transforms into creatures as varied as a werewolf, a Leper, a giant statue of Paul Bunyan, Ben’s deceased father, a scary librarian, and of course, Bill’s murdered little brother Georgie. That’s just some of the forms IT has taken during its screen appearances, but Stephen King’s massive book featured even more terrifying disguises for the ancient alien being. This makes sense, as the printed page isn’t limited by special effects budgets and copyright clearances.
One thing that happens a lot more in IT the book is IT transforming into prominent monsters from pop culture. Many of these are older creatures encountered during the 1950s portion of the novel, but in one memorable instance, a popular monster from 1970s cinema suddenly swims into the story.
IT: Pennywise Transforms Into Jaws (In Stephen King’s Book)
Sadly, “Bruce” as it was dubbed behind the scenes during the making of Steven Spielberg’s classic Jaws, doesn’t get its own chapter to wreak havoc. The shark’s appearance in IT’s text is brief, but the imagery King conjures is still very hard to forget. In the 1980s portions of the book, when the Losers’ Club returns to Derry as adults, a reference is made to the fact that a boy named Tommy Vicananza one day witnessed the shark from Jaws swimming around in the Derry Canal. According to Tommy, the shark’s fin alone was eight or nine feet tall, and it ate up another boy named Johnny Feury.
While Tommy is described as possibly being intellectually disabled - in words that wouldn’t fly in a book written now - there’s little reason to doubt his story. IT turned into things like Frankenstein when killing kids in the 1950s, so why wouldn’t he update his transformation roster when preying on the children of the 1980s? As far as why Jaws never appeared in the recent IT movies, the answer probably comes down to licensing, as Jaws is a Universal property and Warner Bros. would’ve had to obtain their permission to use the shark. Plus, this side story really doesn’t play into the main battle between the Losers and Pennywise.
More: Everything Pennywise Transforms Into In IT Chapter One & Two
