Director Andy Muschietti has revealed new details surrounding the upcoming ‘It’ sequel…
Pennywise the Clown will live to float again.
Plans are moving forward for the ‘It’ sequel with director Andy Muschietti expected to return following a massive opening weekend that saw the ‘R’ rated horror film based on Stephen King’s novel pull in a whopping $123 million.
While deals still need to be signed and New Line has to officially announce the project, everyone knows that the ‘It’ sequel is moving forward and Muschietti already has some ideas in mind for what he plans to unleash during Chapter Two.
At the end of the first ‘It’ movie, the final credits card reads ‘Chapter One’, which is the perfect teaser for the second part of the movie that will be ‘Chapter Two’. The first film took place between 1988 and 1989 with the sequel taking place 27 years later, which means it will be set in present day as the Loser’s Club reunites to battle back against the evil entity they thought they had defeated.
Muschietti has now confirmed that he still plans on using the younger actors that appeared in the original film in flashback sequences so that means production on the ‘It’ sequel will likely have to kick off as early as next year to keep the kids who appeared in the original movie around the same age as now. While the man focus of the story will take place 27 yaers later with the Loser’s Club as adults, there will still be flashback sequences to that infamous summer in Derry, Maine.
“The hope is we’ll find the best way soon, because it’s also important for Andy to get flashbacks with the kids, who are growing very fast,” co-producer Barbara Muschietti said. “They are an important component in the next film.”
As far as casting goes for the adult version of the Loser’s Club, there’s nothing in the works just yet but that process will likely begin sooner rather than later. While the kids who starred in the original ‘It’ have already given their thoughts on actors and actresses they’d like to portray them in the sequel, it’s possible that the studio may opt for lesser known stars to take over the roles.
Most of the child stars in the first ‘It’ movie were relatively unknown outside of Finn Wolfhard, who became a star after his appearance in the first season of ‘Stranger Things’. It’s very possible that ‘It: Chapter Two’ will also use lesser known stars rather than fill up the cast with a bunch of ‘A’ list celebrities who will command a much higher asking price.
One person who is already locked in for the sequel is actor Bill Skarsgard, who portrayed the villainous Pennywise the Clown in the original ‘It’ and he will return for ‘Chapter Two’ as well.
Now one of the major shifts from the original book written by Stephen King and the film version of ‘It’ was the portrayal of Mike Hanlon — the final member of the Loser’s Club and one of the only African-American kids living in Derry.
Warning spoilers below for those who may not have seen ‘It’ yet…
Unlike the book, Mike does not dig into the history behind Derry’s problem with an evil clown. Instead that role went to Ben Hanscom, the chubby boy who spends his first year after moving to Derry as an outsider with no friends at all. In the film, Ben is the one who researches the town’s history and discovers the constant disasters that continue to haunt Derry including the huge number of children who have gone missing over the years.
In the sequel, Mike’s role will shift back towards the version in the book where he’s the lone member of the Loser’s Club who decides to stay in Derry after they come of age. While Mike will still take on the role of a librarian much like the original book, he will be tormented by the dark entity that continues to haunt this town in every waking moment of every day.
“My idea of Mike in the second movie is quite darker from the book,” Muschietti said. “I want to make his character the one pivotal character who brings them all together, but staying in Derry took a toll with him. I want him to be a junkie actually. A librarian junkie. When the second movie starts, he’s a wreck.
“He’s not just the collector of knowledge of what Pennywise has been doing in Derry. He will bear the role of trying to figure out how to defeat him. The only way he can do that is to take drugs and alter his mind.”
Mike’s experimentation with mind altering drugs is a version of the original story by Stephen King where the children discover something called ‘The Ritual of Chud”, which is basically a psychic battle of wills between the creature and the Loser’s Club. In the original book, the kids use chunks of silver — because that’s a common weapon used in monster movies — to hurt and damage Pennywise. The reason it works is because the kid’s believe it will work. The same concept comes into play with the Ritual of Chud as the adult versions of the Loser’s Club once again got to battle against It.
One other major carryover from the original book that is already in the works for ‘It: Chapter Two’ is the death of one of the Loser’s Club before facing off with Pennywise a second time.
Stan — who in the movie is a young Jewish boy about to go through Bar Mitzvah — is so traumatized by the events from the original encounter with Pennywise that the idea of facing off against that monster for a second time is too much to handle. In the books, Stan takes his own life after receiving the call that he needs to go back to Derry to finish Pennywise one last time.
By all accounts, Stan will still be sacrificed in the sequel but his loss will play a major role in the film.
“There is something in the future for him, taking his own life, that finds its seed in this film,” Muschietti said. “He is the one who doesn’t want to accept what’s going on. And being the one who didn’t want to participate he gets the worst part.”
As of now, ‘It: Chapter Two’ is still in the planning phase but judging by the amount of details revealed by Muschietti, it appears that a script will be worked on rather quickly with production more than likely kicking off next year.
H/T: EW
