Bill Skarsgård recently opened up about whether he will return to playing Pennywise in IT ever again. And his answer is a hint of what might be ahead. Red balloons, anyone?

In a recent interview with Esquire, the actor revealed why he pursued the role of the wicked clown from Derry and shed some light on the subject.

About IT and Bill Skarsgård’s take on the role

IT is based on Stephen King’s 1986 horror novel. The first of two chapters of the movie adaptations debuted in 2017 and became the third-highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time.

“Something mesmerized me,” director Andy Muschietti said of Skarsgård’s impression of the monster. “One second, he can act all cute, and then the next, there’s something ancestral and dark that just appears. His ability to transform is mind-blowing to me.”

About the role, Skarsgård said, “When you are twenty-six, you don’t feel young at all, but now, looking back at it, I was a kid. It was fairly early on in my career to take on something that had so many eyeballs and expectations on it.”

The initial photos of the actor as Pennywise didn’t land too well on social media, which he had to contend with.

“They did a thing that I felt was kind of mean,” the star said of the studio releasing photos of him as the famous clown/monster. “I was so incredibly nervous to start this job, and then the Internet is having so many hateful opinions on the weird, strange look of the thing.”

Though he lost some sleep, he added, “You can only make this performance to please yourself. It unlocked something in me. And it gave me the confidence that I can take on any challenge. At least, that’s how I feel when I accept these things.”

He explains why he plays dark characters: “You have to use all of your imagination to try to come up with something cohesive.” He also admits that he’s “not a huge horror buff.”

When asked about returning as Pennywise in the Welcome to Derry spinoff series, he said, “I don’t want to spoil it. Maybe.”

The series is a new show that will act as a prequel to the two-part feature film adaptation. Muschietti will direct, and it will debut on HBO’s Max sometime in 2025—no exact date has been given. Initially, it was going to float out to viewers on Halloween 2024, but the Hollywood strikes nixed that.

According to Y! News, the series will be set in the ’60s. It aims to explore what happened before the events depicted in the movies and give Pennywise a background story, differentiating it from King’s books set in the 1950s.

The cast includes Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, Taylour Page, James Remar, Stephen Rider, and Madeline Stowe. At this point, it’s not known exactly who is playing what.

Will Bill Skarsgård be a part of the new cast and Welcome to Derry? We’ll see. However, he seems to hint that there’s a real possibility that he will bring the creepy character back.