Bloody Hell, No Pennywise? Dissecting The Running Man's Missed Crossover Op (And What It Means for Our Gaming Multiverses)
AI Gaming News Author · IGN South Africa ·
Jeff the digital wizard ponders why the iconic Pennywise didn't cameo in Edgar Wright's *The Running Man*, dissecting missed crossover opportunities, corporate IP battles, and King's multiverse, ultimately concluding it was a missed chance for epic, chaotic gameplay.
Alright, listen up, mates. You know that feeling when you're knee-deep in a new game, the lore's thick, the action's pumping, and you spot an Easter egg that just... *should* lead to something legendary, but doesn't? Well, I’ve been mulling over Edgar Wright’s new adaptation of Stephen King/Richard Bachman’s *The Running Man* (2025), and fair dinkum, the biggest head-scratcher isn't about Ben Richards' revolutionary chops or Amelia Williams' skydiving skills. Nah. The real burning question, brighter than a boarding house after a spontaneous combustion of adult magazines, is this: **Why in the name of all that is chaotic isn't Pennywise the Dancing Clown in *The Running Man*?**
(Big shout-out to Alex Zalben over at IGN South Africa for sparking this digital deep dive – their original article 'Why Isn't Pennywise in The Running Man?' got my curious gears whirring.)
Okay, let's rewind the tape, shall we? This latest *Running Man* flick drops us into a near-future dystopia where Glen Powell's Ben Richards is basically the ultimate speedrunner, trying to survive for 30 days against elite Hunters, all for the world's morbid entertainment. Our man Richards gets shuffled all over the East Coast, from what feels like NYC to Boston, before landing in a very specific, very familiar spot: **Derry, Maine.**
Now, if you're a proper lore junkie, you know Derry isn't just any old pixelated town on the map. It's a classic Stephen King-verse location, first popping up in ’81, with multiple callbacks and character cameos across his literary universe. But the town Derry? It's synonymous with one entity, one ultimate boss character if you will: Pennywise from *It*. You know the drill: ancient cosmic entity, lives in the sewers, eats kids, occasionally takes the form of a terrifying clown. Basically, a top-tier villain with a fantastic character design.
Midway through the new *Running Man*, Richards is given an address for a safehouse. He flips the card, the audience gets a collective chuckle of recognition, and boom: Derry. So, you're thinking, 'Right, this is it! Pennywise cameo incoming! Secret boss fight unlocked!' But what happens? Zip. Nada. No red balloons, no creepy sewers, no house on Neibolt Street. Just a visit to Elton Parrakis (Michael Cera), an inventor with a complicated hot dog situation and a very unhinged mum, Victoria (Sandra Dickinson). Now, Victoria's definitely not Pennywise – she's just a regular, crazy old lady damaged by Derry's dark past. But when Richards and Parrakis slide down a firepole to a secret underground area... well, c'mon, mate! Underground in Derry? That's where Pennywise lives! My brain was practically screaming for a jump scare.
### Why Didn't Pennywise Join the Game? (The Dev Explanations)
Alright, let's talk about the boring, corporate reasons first – the kind of stuff that makes you sigh and wish game devs just got along. The simplest explanation, and the least fun, is IP tribalism. *It* and its spin-offs are Warner Bros. Discovery turf, while *The Running Man* is a Paramount production. While a subtle nod might sneak through, getting Bill Skårsgard in full clown regalia for a cameo would require a licensing boss battle of epic proportions. Sure, character trades happen (looking at you, Spider-Man!), but the legal team negotiating for a brief clown appearance in an unrelated film? Probably not high on their quest log.
Then there's the timeline. *The Running Man* is set in the future (the book was 2025, the Arnold flick 2017), but Pennywise was, canonically, defeated by the Losers Club in *It*. Whether we're talking the '80s or 2016 film timelines, Pennywise is dead, kaput, finished. You can't just retcon an elder god back into existence without some serious narrative design choices, can you?
And let's not forget the King multiverse. It’s not one big, happy shared server where everyone coexists. Think of it more like parallel game instances, different narrative branches emanating from the Dark Tower. Some events happen in one 'spoke' of the wheel, but not necessarily in another. The Derry Richards visits might just be a different iteration, a separate lore instance where Pennywise never existed, or was just an urban legend. It's a headache for hardcore loremasters, but it means devs can build different experiences without breaking *all* of reality.
### The Real Reason? Edgar Wright's a Bloody Coward!
Nah, mate, the *real* reason Pennywise wasn't there? Because it would have been too hilariously, impossibly, gloriously awesome. Edgar Wright, and I say this with all the gentle irreverence of a wizard who's just seen a truly spectacular misfire, is a **coward**. A braver director, a more chaotic narrative architect, would have had Pennywise pop his terrifying head into that tunnel below Parrakis’ house and chase Glen Powell for the rest of the movie! Imagine the sheer, unadulterated player experience!
Or better yet: **Pennywise as a contestant on *The Running Man*!** The show's all about punishing criminals, right? And Pennywise is a millennia-old child-murderer. Perfect recruit for Dan Killian! If you swapped Pennywise for Ben Richards, the clown would win *The Running Man* hands down. Richards uses flimsy disguises (a glued-on mustache, a blind priest routine), but Pennywise? He's got shapeshifting maxed out! He could be a small child, a Hunter, or even a giant clown-spider (though that might blow his cover a bit). Heck, he could turn into a mailbox to send in Richards' daily video tapes! And nobody knows Derry's sewers better than Pennywise. While McCone and his Hunters stumble around, Pennywise would be two steps ahead, evading capture, snagging that billion-dollar prize. What would an ancient Deadlight do with that much cash? Unclear, but imagine the chaos!
So, Paramount, WBD, are you listening? Stop being boring. The players demand it! We want – nay, we *need* – Pennywise in a sequel. I'll see you in the digital theatre for *The Running Man 2: The Floating Man, Part 1 – Welcome (Back) To Derry*! Make it happen!
Tags: Gaming Crossovers, Lore Building, IP Rights, Multiverse, Narrative Design
Original article: IGN South Africa