Context: Bill Skarsgård as It / Pennywise the Dancing Clown: An ancient, trans-dimensional evil that awakens every twenty-seven years. Will Poulter was previously cast in the role but was forced to drop out due to scheduling conflicts, with Poulter stating, "I was when Mr. Fukunaga was directing, but the circumstances at New Line are such that a new director's attached now." Poulter continued, "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 have n't had a chance to connect with that (new) director." Mark Rylance, Ben Mendelsohn, Kirk Acevedo, Richard Armitage, Hugo Weaving, and Tilda Swinton were considered for the role, with Mendelsohn passing on the project, as New Line wanted him to take a sizable pay cut. On June 3, 2016, The Independent officially reported, after final negotiations took place, that Muschietti had chosen actor Bill Skarsgård to portray the character. On portraying Pennywise, Skarsgård stated, "It's such an extreme character. Inhumane, It's beyond even a sociopath because he's not even human. He's not even a clown. I'm playing just one of the beings It creates." Skarsgård described the character further, saying, "It truly enjoys the shape of the clown Pennywise, and enjoys the game and the hunt." He also commented, "What's funny to this evil entity might not be funny to everyone else. But he thinks it's funny." On Pennywise's design, Skarsgård stated, "It's important that we do something fresh and original for this one. It's purposely not going toward that weird, greasy look." He also commented on being compared to Tim Curry, stating that, "(Curry)'s performance was truly great, but it's important for me to do something different because of that. I'll never be able to make a Tim Curry performance as good as Tim Curry." Skarsgård also elaborated on his age, stating, "There's a childishness to the character, because he's so closely linked to the kids. The clown is the manifestation of children's imaginations, so there's something child-like about that." Producer Dan Lin spoke of Skarsgård's physical attributes: "His build is really interesting. He's really tall and lanky, and feels a little clown like in his movement. When he came in -- we had a lot of different actors read, and when he came in he had a different spin on the character that got us really excited." Lin concluded by contrasting the character with that of Heath Ledger's Joker, "You've had (Ledger) doing almost a clown joker, you've seen obviously Tim Curry as a clown. We wanted someone who created a Pennywise character that would stand on its own and Bill came in and created this character that frankly freaked us out." Muschietti spoke of Skarsgård's Pennywise as one not to lurk in the shadows, to which he remarked, "Pennywise shows up, he's front and center, and he does his show. He has an act ... So it's weird all the time, and every little thing implies a further threat." Muschietti also spoke of wanting to make the sense of dread that grows in Derry part of the dread of Pennywise, to which he stated, "He's not just a character that can shape-shift, his influence is all around. The anticipation of him is almost scarier than the actual Pennywise scares." On selecting Skarsgård to portray Pennywise, Muschietti wanted to stay true to the essence of the character, and Skarsgård caught his attention, "The character has a childish and sweet demeanor, but there's something very off about him. Bill has that balance in him. He can be sweet and cute, but he can be pretty disturbing." Wyatt Oleff as Stanley "Stan" Uris: A Jewish mysophobe who is the son of a rabbi. He is studying for his bar mitzvah but is n't interested in religion, which is upsetting to his father. On the character of Uris, Muschietti spoke of him knowing a situation of despair, "Long story short, there's all sorts of difficult situations, and we had the chance to tell them in a movie that faces directly those conflicts ... the families of the young actors were very open-minded, so we could tell them about subjects that are normally very touchy." Jeremy Ray Taylor as Benjamin "Ben" Hanscom: Hanscom is the new kid at school and consequently does not have any friends. He likes reading and researching so he spends a lot of time in the library. He is also very overweight, which earns his place in the Losers' Club, but like all of the Losers, there are underlying facets that define him far more than superficial appearances. On the character of Hanscom, Muschietti spoke of him knowing a situation of despair, "... Ben is bullied at school." Sophia Lillis as Beverly "Bev" Marsh: The only female member of the Losers' Club, she is bullied at school, particularly concerning false rumors that she is promiscuous. Her home life is also dismal, as her violent father is sexually abusive to her. On the character of Marsh, Muschietti spoke of her knowing a situation of despair, "Beverly's case is of course the worst, because it's about sexual abuse on a minor." In an interview with Rolling Stone, Lillis spoke of Muschietti not wanting her and her co-stars to spend too much time with Skarsgård: "We actually were n't allowed to see him until our scenes, because we wanted the horror to be real." On Skarsgård's appearance as Pennywise, she recalled, "Everyone had different reactions, but all of us were like,' Wow, what did we get ourselves into?' One look at him, and ... you know, he's a really scary clown that wants to kill us. I was a little bit shocked." On her connection with her fellow co-stars, she noted that the closeness of the friendships formed allowed Lillis to connect with her own character: "I relate to Beverly -- the way she deals with her emotions, and the way she was around the Losers. I felt that way around the actual actors." Finn Wolfhard as Richard "Richie" Tozier: The bespectacled best friend of Bill Denbrough, whose loud mouth and foul language often get him into trouble. Wolfhard, famous as Mike Wheeler in Stranger Things, shared the first image of the Losers Club on his Instagram account, with the photo captioned as "The Losers Club take Toronto", showing the cast of actors who would play the protagonists. Wolfhard was the only actor cast in both this and Fukunaga's version. On the character of Tozier, Muschietti spoke of him knowing a situation of despair, "We do n't know much about Richie's personality, because he's the big mouth of the group. But we suppose he's also neglected at home, and he's the clown of the band because he needs attention." Jack Dylan Grazer as Edward "Eddie" Kaspbrak: Kaspbrak is the epitome of the hypochondriac, overly exaggerated by the immense amount of objects in his medicine cabinet; a sickly boy who only feels truly well when he is with his friends. His overbearing mother is the true source of his hypochondria, however; she has convinced him that he is seriously ill and must stay close to her because only she can protect him. Grazer spoke of his appreciation of films such as Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) and Batman (1989) that gave him "... insight on how (he) could (improvise) or reuse those things as references to the time period." Chosen Jacobs as Michael "Mike" Hanlon: An African American homeschool student and outsider. Orphaned in a fire and raised by his stern grandfather, he is reluctant to take up the family trade as a butcher. On the experience of shooting Muschietti's piece, Jacobs spoke of the experience as "... my favorite summer of my 16 long years on earth ..." Nicholas Hamilton as Henry Bowers: A young sociopath who leads the Bowers Gang, a gang of high school thugs, and terrorizes the Losers' Club. Hamilton prepared for the role by studying Jarred Blancard's portrayal of the character in It (1990), and in Hamilton's words, "watched all the bits of my original character" for research. Hamilton added, through the character of Bowers, that "There's stuff that I have to do that is really creepy and the opportunity to help share my psychotic side has been really fun." Additionally Hamilton stated, "I recently did a scene where I was working with Jeremy Ray Taylor. I had to terrorize the hell out of him and get right in his face." Jackson Robert Scott as George "Georgie" Denbrough: The innocent, energetic 7-year-old brother of Bill Denbrough. His death at the hands of Pennywise sets the stage for the next summer's events.\n\nQuestion: who plays it in stephen king's it? Let's give stream of consciousness first:
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The relevant sentence in the passage is: Bill Skarsgård as It / Pennywise the Dancing Clown:
So, the final answer is Bill Skarsgård.
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