Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for the IT: Welcome to Derry finale.

Pennywise the clown, first created for Stephen King‘s 1986 novel It, is one of the most terrifying fictional monsters in history. The entity was made even scarier thanks to portrayals by Tim Curry in the 1990 miniseries and Bill Skarsgård in Andy Muschietti‘s two feature films, and now the IT: Welcome to Derry series on HBO Max. Having a killer clown as the protagonist is an easy way to scare an audience, but there is so much more going on with Pennywise. This is no person, as IT: Welcome to Derry reveals, but a form stolen from a human performer named Bob Gray. King’s iconic villain is a shapeshifting alien, and its true form is more spiderlike. However, the season finale of IT: Welcome to Derry depicts the entity turning into a giant bird in a callback to specific references from King’s original novel.

Pennywise Takes the Form of a Bird at the End of ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’

IT: Welcome to Derry reveals that the alien, which came to Earth on a star and wakes up to feed every 27 years, is kept inside a barrier of star shards planted by Indigenous people centuries before. The star is like kryptonite to the entity, and once General Shaw (James Remar) has the bright idea to remove the barrier and let it loose as a weapon, Pennywise is set free. The clown then puts the entire high school in its deadlights, and it’s up to this generation of Losers, who carry a dagger made of the star, to plant it in the ground and create a new barrier around Derry.

As the friends drive the dagger into the earth with the help of Rich’s (Arian S. Cartaya) ghost, Pennywise runs in slow motion through the fog, like the masked hag skating across the ice in Curtains. As it reaches its target, Pennywise’s body transforms into a giant bird, but alas, it is too late. The dagger is planted, and the alien is ripped apart and scatters away like a dimming ember. This form might seem to come out of nowhere — some might consider it a wink to the winged demon baby from the premiere episode, but this bird is integral to what Stephen King wrote about almost four decades ago.

Pennywise’s Bird Form Is Mentioned in Stephen King’s ‘IT’ Novel

Stephen King’s IT takes place in 1957, and although the Black Spot fire happens, just like it does in IT: Welcome to Derry, it’s in 1930, and is more of a flashback scene rather than a fully fleshed-out part of the story. In the novel, as in the show, Will Hanlon is at the club intended for Derry’s Black residents when an all-white lynch mob shows up to burn it down. The entity, which feeds on fear, is unable to resist making an appearance.

The alien takes the form of what its prey fears. In the book, that could be old Universal monsters like the Mummy and Wolfman, but its most popular shape is Pennywise the clown. Not only are so many of us, child and adult alike, afraid of clowns, but as IT: Welcome to Derry reveals, the entity notices how kids are drawn to Bob Gray’s clown character.

Although not shown in the series, one of Will’s biggest fears is birds because a crow attacked him in his crib when he was a baby. This leads to the alien showing up at the Black Spot as a giant bird, with a wingspan of 60 feet and red balloons tied to its wings — not only to scare Will, but to snatch prey in its massive claws. In the novel, after Will tells his son the story of the bird, Mike Hanlon is later attacked by the same impossible form at the Kitchener Ironworks.

Pennywise’s Bird Form Was Supposed to Be Shown in ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’s Black Spot Scene

Image via Warner Bros. Television

The Black Spot scene in IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 7 is upsetting on multiple levels. Not only is it a reminder of real-life American sins, but it’s where Rich dies as a heroic knight to save his fair maiden, Marge (Matilda Lawler), and is arguably where Pennywise is the most horrific he’s ever been. Seeing the clown walk out of the fire, or cutting a head in half with a cleaver and then eating from it like it’s a watermelon, is unforgettable, but can you imagine if they’d shown the bird too?

That’s almost what actually happened. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, series co-producer and showrunner Brad Caleb Kane revealed why Pennywise’s bird form didn’t appear at the Black Spot:

“There are multiple drafts of 107 with that bird in it. It just didn’t make the final shoot for practical reasons. That’s the honest answer: for budgetary reasons. The Black Spot is a massive set piece. On normal shows, you get 10, 12, maybe as many as 13 days of production — and that’s generous. [On It: Welcome to Derry,] 13 days of production would take you just through the burning of the Black Spot itself, maybe 10 days of production, and there’s a lot more story told in 107 than just the Black Spot fire.”

It was probably a good idea that the bird didn’t show up in the Black Spot scene. With Pennywise hacking up people while surrounded by flames, a bird with balloons tied to its wings would have fallen flat. Instead, the form appears, all too briefly, in the finale, as Pennywise’s one last desperate attempt to frighten the kids trying to kill it. With a clown’s head atop its sprawling body, the bird is indeed creepy to behold, but it stands no chance against IT: Welcome to Derry‘s new Losers Club.