Will Poulter, the Actor Behind ‘Bandersnatch’s Colin, Was Almost Pennywise

If you’ve seen Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, there’s a 100 percent chance you have hard opinions about Colin, this story’s drugged out video game genius. But in another reality there’s a good chance you’d know Will Poulter‘s name for a very different reason. At one point Poulter was cast to play Pennywise in the IT remake.

Now, 2017’s IT is known as a terrifying blockbuster hit. But the adaptation of Stephen King’s iconic novel had a long journey before becoming the GIF-inspiring pop culture cornerstone it is today. An IT project was first announced in 2009 with screenwriter David Kajganich (Suspira) adapting the source material. Three years later, Cary Joji Fukunaga, best known for his work on True Detective, boarded the project as director. It’s because of Fukunaga that Will Poulter was cast — and then lost — as the terrifying dancing clown.

So why did Bill Skarsgård end up donning the makeup instead of Poulter? It all came down to creative differences between Fukunaga and Warner Bros.. While Warner Bros. was happy with the film’s $32 million budget and the director’s plan to adapt the book into two separate movies, the studio and director didn’t see eye-to-eye when it came to the film’s take on horror. According to Fukunaga, Warner Bros. wanted a fairly by-the-books movie filled with horror archetypes and tropes. The director was trying to create something more subtle and terrifying.

“The main difference was making Pennywise more than just the clown,” the director said in an interview with Variety. “…trying to find really sadistic and intelligent ways he scares children, and also the children had real lives prior to being scared. And all that character work takes time. It’s a slow build, but it’s worth it, especially by the second film.”

Fukunaga left the project in 2015, and many thought it was dead in the sewer water. It wasn’t, and the director who would ultimately be responsible for the remake was more than happy to keep Poulter as his Pennywise. However, Poulter chose to sever ties with the project.

“I was very, very intrigued by the prospect of working with Will, I always thought that he would be an amazing Pennywise,” director Andy Muschietti said in an interview with Deadline. “Will basically expressed a feeling that he had slowly disengaged from playing that character, that was so dark and terrifying. It was a personal decision I respected, but I was eager and willing to find my own Pennywise and that’s what we did.”

Later, Poulter revealed it was more than just a growing distaste for this dark character and scheduling conflicts that caused him to pass on Pennywise. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Poulter explained, “I think, with all due respect to him of course, I was selected by Cary and subscribed to Cary’s vision for the movie, and so I haven’t had a chance to connect with that [new] director.”

If nothing else, Bandersnatch proves that Poulter can effortlessly walk the line between sympathetic, unhinged, and terrifying. Heck, maybe he can come back to the role when they remake the movie in another 27 years.

Watch Black Mirror: Bandersnatch on Netflix

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