Incredibly, one of the biggest hits of 2017 was an R-rated horror movie. Andy Muschietti’s adaptation of Stephen King’s doorstop 1986 novel It ranked fifth in both the US and UK’s 2017 box office results, and tenth in the world overall, with a total haul of just over $700m. Unadjusted for inflation it’s officially the highest grossing horror movie of all time. We’ll see whether that winning streak continues in 2019, when Muschietti and screenwriter Gary Dauberman return to pick up the other half of the book in It: Chapter Two.
The first trailer arrived in May 2019. For everything else you need to know, read on...
The story so far...
Stephen King wrote the whopping, 1100-page It in 1986. It won the British Fantasy Award in 1987 and was nominated for a World Fantasy Award and a Hugo. It was the #1 bestselling novel in the US in 1986, and in the 30 years since has sold literally millions of copies.
American TV network ABC produced a two-episode, three-hour adaptation in 1990, directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, which wasn't very good, but is much loved anyway because Tim Curry is in it.
A new film adaptation was announced as being in development at Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema in March 2009. After years of development hell, director Cary Fukunaga got close to making it, but eventually dropped the project. Muschietti and Dauberman picked it up in July 2015, retaining Fukunaga's approach of splitting the narrative into two halves and updating the story to the '80s (for the kids' half) and the present day (for the grown-ups), rather than King's '50s and '80s. Otherwise they started over from scratch. It: Chapter One (as the end credits actually revealed its title to be) was the first result, released in September 2017 and achieving the behemoth success outlined above. Now read on...
Who is starring in It: Chapter Two?
It: Chapter Two takes place 27 years after the first film, with the kids obviously now all grown up. Above is the assembled adult Losers Club, which, from left to right, boasts the following membership:
Jessica Chastain plays Beverly Marsh
James McAvoy plays Bill Denbrough
Isaiah Mustafa plays Mike Hanlon
Jay Ryan plays Ben Hanscom
James Ransone plays Eddie Kaspbrak
Bill Hader plays Richie Tozier
Andy Bean plays Stanley Uris
Outside the Losers:
Bill Skarsgård returns to play Pennywise the clown.
Teach Grant plays the adult Henry Bowers.
Xavier Dolan plays Adrian Mellon, a gay man living in Derry who becomes the target of a homophobic hate crime.
Will Beinbrink plays Tom Rogan, Beverly's lover and an abusive influence in her life.
Jess Weixler plays Audra Phillips, the wife of Bill Denbrough.
Are the kids still in It: Chapter Two?
Yes. While the focus is on the adults this time, Muschietti has confirmed that new flashbacks with the kids are an important part of Chapter Two. He was pleased to get into production quickly enough that they hadn't all changed too much between instalments. In the Junior Losers Club, going left to right in the picture above:
Chosen Jacobs plays Mike Hanlon
Finn Wolfhard plays Richie Tozier
Sophia Lillis plays Beverly Marsh
Jaden Lieberher plays Bill Denbrough
Jack Dylan Grazer plays Eddie Kaspbrak
Wyatt Oleff plays Stanley Uris
Jeremy Ray Taylor plays Ben Hanscom
This also means that the deliniation between the kids' movie and the adult one isn't as clear cut as was first assumed. The novel interweaves the timelines, and while the adults didn't appear in the first film at all, "On the second movie, that dialogue between timelines will be more present," says Muschietti. "We are going to have flashbacks that take us back to the '80s and inform the story in the present day. I definitely want to visit the Loser's clubhouse, which is something we left out of the first one. I think it’d be nice to introduce it as a place they used to go, but we didn’t see it."
What is It: Chapter Two's story?
The It entity shows up every 27 years. The kids thought they vanguished him forever in 1989, but sadly that turns out not to have been the case. As the 27-year anniversary approaches, Mike starts to get vibes that Pennywise is returning, so rounds up the Losers Club – who've all gone their separate ways in the intervening decades – for the rematch they promised with their childhood blood oath. His job is complicated by the fact that, while the other Losers do recall some great traumatic event of their past, they've all blocked out exactly what it was.
Pennywise, we're promised, is even more dangerous this time than last. “The arc of the first movie is that he, for the first time, experiences fear himself,” says Skarsgård. “His last line – ‘Fear…’ – is him experiencing it for the first time, and he’s sort of shocked and perplexed and surprised. Like, what is this? It fuels hatred and anger towards the kids, who will be adults in this one, so I think there might be an even more vicious Pennywise. He’s really going after it.”
Will It: Chapter Two get into Stephen King's Macroverse?
Dropped from the first film – arguably wisely – were the more out-there aspects of King's novel: specifically anything hinting at the "Macroverse" (the mythology that links much of King's work) and the notion that the yin to Pennywise's yang is a giant magic space turtle that created the universe (and helps to hold up The Dark Tower).
Nevertheless, it sounds as if Muschietti has folded at least some of that madness into Chapter Two. "I think in the second part, the turtle will try to help them," he told SyFy. "In the second movie they have to retrieve their memories from the summer of 1989; the keys to defeating Pennywise are in the past. The turtle left a few clues to their childhood that they don’t remember, and that’s how we jump back to 1989."
When is It: Chapter Two released?
Shooting began in Toronto in July 2018, and It: Chapter Two will be in cinemas on 6 September, 2019.