Stephen King’s IT: Why Pennywise Is Scared Of The Turtle

Stephen King’s IT introduced readers to a one-of-a-kind creature that can take any form, the most common one being Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and as menacing as it is, this creature has one big enemy it’s truly scared of: Maturin, the turtle. Stephen King has told different types of horror stories in his novels, with villains that go from supernatural beings to humans who incarnate evil. In 1986, King explored some of the deepest and most common fears in the novel IT, through an evil, shapeshifting entity that was simply referred to as “IT”.

IT tells the story of a group of kids self-named “The Losers Club” by alternating between 1957 and 1985, thus following the Losers when they were kids and as adults. Set in Derry, Maine (like many other stories by King), the Losers come across an evil entity living in the sewers which wakes up every 27 years to feed, and it can take any shape it desires. Referred to as “IT”, this creature takes the form of its victims’ biggest fears as it feeds off their fear, but its preferred shape is that of Pennywise. At some point in the novel, King explained part of IT’s backstory but left enough of it untold to raise many questions about it, and everything about IT’s origins is a bit confusing, as it’s connected to the macroverse and the turtle Maturin, who turns out to be the only being IT is afraid of.

Among the many concepts in the universe of Stephen King is the marcoverse, a void containing and surrounding the universe and where IT and a turtle named Maturin live. IT’s true shape only exists in an inter-dimensional realm referred to as “deadlights”, and the closest to the real shape that the human mind can comprehend is a giant female spider, and those who have faced the deadlights go immediately insane, with only a few surviving such experience. Maturin, on the other hand, is a massive turtle who by nature is kind, wise, gentle, and compassionate, and who constantly withdraws into his shell. On one of the rare occasions that he came out, he had a stomach ache and vomited out the mainstream universe, and he returned to his shell immediately after.

Because of this behavior, IT considered Maturin to be old and lazy, but it was also afraid of the legendary turtle. In IT, during the Ritual of Chüd through which Bill Denbrough was able to talk to the turtle, Maturin told the young boy that IT was afraid of him, human potential, and the turtle himself. A creature like IT being afraid of a character like Maturin might not make much sense to many, but what happens is that these two entities are natural enemies and opposites, yet they’re equal in power. IT represents chaos, evil, and fear, while the turtle is a force of kindness and is led by compassion, making them direct opposites. Both being interdimensional entities, their powers are at the same level, meaning that the turtle could kill IT if it wanted to, so it makes sense that IT is afraid of it.

The Stephen King universe is more complex than it seems, as it’s literally a universe of its own, with layered mythology and different entities and creatures with different purposes, and the stories of many of them have been left a mystery on purpose. IT established that the title villain is scared of Maturin, but didn’t explore their joint history nor what could happen if these two were to fight each other at some point.

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Adrienne Tyler
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Adrienne Tyler is a features writer for Screen Rant. She is an Audiovisual Communication graduate who wanted to be a filmmaker, but life had other plans (and it turned out great). Prior to Screen Rant, she wrote for Pop Wrapped, 4 Your Excitement (4YE), and D20Crit, where she was also a regular guest at Netfreaks podcast. She was also a contributor for FanSided’s BamSmackPow and 1428 Elm. Adrienne is very into films and she enjoys a bit of everything: from superhero films to heartbreaking dramas, to low-budget horror films. Every time she manages to commit to a TV show without getting bored, an angel gets its wings.

When she’s not writing, you can find her trying to learn a new language, watching hockey (go Avs!), or wondering what life would have been like had Pushing Daisies, Firefly, and Limitless not been cancelled. Breakfast food is life and coffee is what makes the world go round.

Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once. It was great.

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