Details Revealed For The Sequel To IT and How It Might Explore Pennywise's History with Derry
Earlier today the new trailer for the feature film adaptation of Stephen King's It was released and I freakin' loved what I saw! This movie looks like it's going to be so good and so wonderfully scary. The whole adaptation is being planned for a two-part film and the second part would focus on the Losers Club as adults as they reunite to battle It again.
We have some new details today regarding the plan for the sequel... if it happens. At the time this interview was conducted with a group of press on the set of the film, there was no guarantee that a sequel would happen. If it doesn't happen, it would be a bloody shame. But the creative team really wants it to happen!
This first film is only the first part of a much larger story that needs to be told on the big screen. If it does get made, director Andy Muschietti and producer Barbara Muschietti already have their plans worked out and they talked about it in a group interview. This gives us a good idea of where they will take the sequel.
They confirmed that the young cast from the first film will return to reprise their roles because there will be flashbacks to certain elements of the story that we won't see in the first film. Muschietti explains:
”I always insisted that if there is a second part, there would be a dialogue between the two timelines, and that it would be approached like the adult life of the losers, there would be flashbacks that sort of illuminate events that are not told in the first one."
If you've read the book, then you know that the story jumps back and forth between the story of the kids and the story of the adults. I always like the story of the kids more, but the adult's story completes the full journey.
The director has not shot any of these flashback scenes, so he's "praying that the kids don’t grow up!” If a sequel gets the green light it's going to have to happen soon.
One of the other things the sequel could focus on in Pennywise The Clown's effect on the town of Derry over the years, which would be fascinating. The first movie will offer mentions and nods to some of the things that happened, but we don't get to see any of them.
One event that was specifically asked about was The Black Spot, which is a deadly fire that broke out at an African American barracks in Derry, which killed a lot of people. Barbara Muschietti talked about that revealing that the sequel might actually open up with this sequence. She says:
”That sequence with the Black Spot, we think... I'm talking too much. They're going to murder me! We think it's gonna be a great opening for the next film."
She was then asked by Quint of AICN if that means they also might include the Kitchener Ironworks disaster, which is a crazy event that killed almost a hundred kids and Derry townspeople in the 1900s while the factory was hosting an Easter Egg hunt. The response to that question was "a maaayyyyybbbeeee look".
I think it's awesome that they are looking to dive into the history of Derry and Pennywise's influence on the town. In the book, we see that there's a relationship between the town and the clown, and in a way, his influence makes the town a bad evil place.
The kids also fan cast the sequel on who should play the older versions of themselves and the consensus was Jessica Chastain as Beverly Marsh, Chris Pratt as Ben Hanscom, Jake Gyllenhaal as Eddie Kasprack, Bill Hader as Richie Tozier, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Stanley Uris, Chadwick Boseman or David Oyelowo as Mike Hanlon. That's a cast I could get behind!
Hopefully, Warner Bros. pushes the sequel forward. I haven't even seen the first movie yet, but I'm rooting for the sequel because it's a part of the story!