Here's your first look at Pennywise in the remake of Stephen King's It

Coulrophobia; noun: extreme, irrational or abnormal fear of clowns.

Why are we telling you this? Because if you don’t already suffer from this condition then you’re about to start to…

Ahead of the two-part remake of Stephen King’s It, director Andrés Muschietti (Mama) has gone and shared a sneak peek of his child-gobbling Pennywise played by Bill Skarsgård.

No teeth just yet, just a sly grin and face-full of makeup, giving us our first look at the titular monster which will be plaguing the sewer systems of fictional Derry, Maine.

Giving his own take on this twisted monster once played so menacingly by Tim Curry, 26-year-old Skarsgård told Entertainment Weekly: “What’s funny to this evil entity might not be funny to everyone else. But he thinks it’s funny.”

Best of all for King fans, however, the actor even claimed he was enjoying exploring the original novel too: “I’ve been doing some clown research,” he said. “I’m not sure if there was so much clown phobia before the novel. There’s obviously been this thing where people find clowns are unsettling, but nobody explored it the way Stephen King did.”

Splitting the original 1986 novel into two films – one following the children being stalked by the shapeshifting entity, the second picking up decades later as the kids confront what they saw as youngsters – filming is well underway over in Port Hope, Ontario, which has been transformed to eighties Derry (see images below).

As for the new Pennywise, if it’s half as scary as Curry’s then we’re in for a treat.

Those are some awful big clown shoes to fill.