New Details on IT Sequel Revealed, Child Actors to Return

Though an IT sequel has not officially been greenlit (though perhaps it is to be expected by the time you finish reading this sentence thanks to the film’s huge box office opening), new details have been revealed about the film over at EW.

The outlet reports that the upcoming sequel will see the child actors from the first film reprising their roles, working as flashback scenes for the adult versions of their characters that inform the present day scenes. Director Andy Muschietti stressed that the scenes with the kid actors won’t be quick cutaways but integral to the sequel.

As readers of the original text know, most of the Losers’ Club all move away from Derry, Maine with one notable exception: Mike Hanlon, who stays in the town as a gatekeeper for Derry and to bring the group back together 27 years later. Muschietti says his version of the character will be a departure from the text, saying:

“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.”

It remains to be seen who will be cast as the adult versions of the characters in the sequel, with the outlet reporting that unknown actors could fill the shoes for the film.

Muschietti also confirmed, naturally, that Bill Skarsgård will suit up as the evil Pennywise once again for the film. The child actors from the first film include Jaeden Lieberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, and Jack Dylan Grazer.

IT debuted on September 8 to the tune of $123.1 million opening weekend gross, the highest opening weekend ever for a September release, for a fall release, and for a horror movie. It clocks in just $9 million behind Deadpool for the second-highest opening for an R-rated movie.