Andy Muschietti’s IT opened in theaters last week and is already breaking box office records, bringing in over $140 million. Muschietti is not wasting any time on the film’s second half. It has just been revealed that the second film has now entered the development phase of production, meaning that the script is complete and the casting phase has begun.
The second installment of IT, which will be released in 2019, will feature the Losers’ Club returning to their hometown as adults only to discover that they are once again must face Pennywise. There has been no word yet who might be cast in the sequel.
What we do know is that Jaeden Lieberher, Sophia Lillis, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Oleff, Jack Dylan Grazer, and Chosen Jacobs, who starred as the Losers’ Club, will be back to reprise their roles in part 2 in flashbacks for their adult versions. In the miniseries, Mike Hanlon was the only member of the club that stayed in Derry. Mushietti has stated that the new version of Mike Hanlon will be a departure from the book.
In the book, Mike Hanlon was the only member of the club that stayed in Derry and is the one to bring back the Losers’ Club after 27 years to reunite. Mushietti has stated that the new version of Mike Hanlon will be very different from the character in the book.
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.”
Muschietti has also now confirmed that Bill Skarsgård will return as Pennywise. Which is a great thing. You have to admit he did an amazing job and is completely terrifying as Pennywise.
