The Old Spice Guy, Isaiah Mustafa, Cast as Mike Hanlon in IT: CHAPTER 2

The final adult member of The Losers Club for IT: Chapter 2 has been cast. Shadowhunters and former Old Spice actor Isaiah Mustafa is set to take on the role of Mike Hanlon, the young version of which was played by Chosen Jacobs in the first film. It was the young actor who made the announcement on his Instagram account.

Mustafa joins Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Andy Bean, James Ransone, and Jay Ryan, who are set to play Beverly, Bill, Richie, Stan, Eddie and Ben, respectively. Bill Skarsgard is also set to return as Pennywise the Clown.

IT: Chapter 2 will be set 27 years after the first film. As they've grown up, they've forgotten about what had happened. When bad things start to happen in Derry again and kids begin to go missing, Mike Hanlon, who stayed behind in Derry to keep watch over the town, calls up his old friends and reminds them of the promise they made to come back and stop It if it ever came back.

Mike plays a very big and important part in the second part of the story. When talking about how the character will be portrayed in Chapter 2, director Andy Muschietti explained:

"My idea of Mike in the second movie is quite darker from 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."

Muschietti goes on to say:

"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."

So that's going to be interesting! The director went on to explain that Mike's mind-altering exploration is inspired by a part of King’s book that wasn't in the movie. It included the kids trying a Native American ritual so that they can get a glimpse of the supernatural plane, which helps bring them into contact with entities that help them stop Pennywise the Clown.

“It resonates with what the kids do when they go to the smokehouse in the Barrens. By inhaling these fumes from the fire they have visions of It, and the origin of It, and the falling fire in the sky that crashed into Derry millions of years ago. We’ve brought that to Mike, by the end of those 30 years Mike has figured out the Ritual of Chüd.”

I loved the first film and I can't wait to see what Muschietti does with this sequel! It will be released on September 6th, 2019.