Firstly – and this is no big surprise to anyone who listened to those maniacal giggles after the end credits – Bill Skarsgard’s Pennywise the Dancing Clown is due a comeback.
But he won’t be facing kids again. The second half of the book follows the Losers Club 27 years after the events of the first part. However, the new adult cast will still be joined by the kids in the form of various flashbacks.
“On the second movie, that dialogue between timelines will be more present,” director Andy Muschietti said in an interview with EW. “If we’re telling the story of adults, we are going to have flashbacks that take us back to the ‘80s and inform the story in the present day…[The children will be] a very big part of the action].”
And it sounds like the younger cast would be pretty excited to be back in the thick of it, with star Finn Wolfhard (who plays loudmouth Richie in the film) previously telling RadioTimes.com he was anxious to work with his castmates once again.
“I mean if they were to do it, you'd do the adults – but it'd be great if they asked us back!” Wolfhard told us.
“We don't know really anything yet, but yes, that'd be incredible. To have another summer like we did. If they do this, I'm so excited to see who they cast [as the older Richie]."
Muschietti also revealed one plot point that would deviate from the novel. At the end of IT Chapter One, Mike Hanlon (played by actor Chosen Jacobs) volunteers to stay in the town of Derry to watch out for any hauntings. And whereas in the book this isolation leads Hanlon to become a mild-mannered librarian, Muschietti has a different plan.
“My idea of Mike in the second movie is quite darker from the book,” the filmmaker 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.”
And here’s a big spoiler: Stan Uris (played by Wyatt Oleff in the first film) will have a reduced screen role. That’s because in the book the character commits suicide after being asked to return to Derry – he’d rather die than face Pennywise again.
It’s a twist that’s already been set up in the movie of part one. “There is something in the future for him, taking his own life, that finds its seed in this film,” Muschietti explains. “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.”
So, looks like there are plenty more clown-based nightmares ahead. And we can't wait.
