Who's more dangerous, Vecna or Pennywise? Theories, possible returns, and the origins of the scariest clown that ever existed in Welcome to Derry

In an interview on Brittany Broski’s Royal Court channel, the comedian and host of YouTube’s most regal format asked Finn Wolfhard which villain would win in a showdown: Vecna from Stranger Things or the clown Pennywise from It. It’s a legitimate question. Born in 2002, the actor has dealt with both, having starred in Netflix’s phenomenon series as it reaches its final battle, as well as in the adaptation of the Stephen King novel published in 1986 and released in cinemas in two parts in 2017 and 2019.

Wolfhard appears as Richie Tozier in the first chapter directed by Andy Muschietti, a filmmaker who also returns behind the camera for the serial prequel Welcome to Derry, whose release coincides precisely with the show created by the Duffer brothers returning to the platform. Mythologies that intersect and lead back to Lady Broski’s question, which can also be read as: who is the worst villain to come face to face with, Vecna or Pennywise?

Vecna vs Pennywise

Finn Wolfhard’s answer is immediate and hilarious in its simple yet precise timing: according to the actor, Pennywise is “the most insecure monster of all time”, and Vecna could easily defeat him. After all, that’s exactly what the characters in It do once they realize that to stop him, all they need is to stop being afraid of him. In short, to destroy him, you just have to keep the clown out of your head and calm every fear. A technique that works only in and through imagination; if it were easy to replicate in real life, it would take away quite a bit of work from many therapists around the world.

Wolfhard also adds that, unlike Vecna, Pennywise is easier to eliminate because what he lacks is the same added value that belongs to the protagonists of both It and Stranger Things: friends. Those same friends who, in It, more or less “bully Pennywise to death”, to quote the actor. Of course, Wolfhard’s take is tied to the lighthearted tone of the interview.

The plot of Welcome to Derry

His answer, in fact, is not meant to be an analysis of the origins of Pennywise’s birth or a denigration of all the years he has spent killing, causing disappearances, and slaughtering children. That lens is instead adopted by the prequel Welcome to Derry, whose story takes place in the early 1960s and offers many cues to better understand the origins of this predator who can smell the fear of his prey and never forgets its scent. A ravenous being whose genesis the show intends to explore and, above all, one that seems determined to give Pennywise the chance not to remain fixed in a single time, but to move through it in a non-linear way, back and forth according to his own relativity.

A revelation toward the end brings with it a very specific question, and no, it’s not once again about who is more dangerous between Pennywise and Vecna, but rather what this will mean in terms of investigation and further character development of the figure created by Stephen King, and how far back it can go. After all, the first season of Welcome to Derry already includes some segments set in 1908. The same year that could be revisited in future seasons, along with, according to circulating theories, 1935 as well. Perhaps it’s still too early to talk about a future (which will likely move into the past) for Welcome to Derry. But whether you find yourself facing Vecna or Pennywise, the solution is the same: run. Or maybe, why not, make sure they run into each other. In the end, what both of them seem to need most is simply a friend.