The Sequel to IT Will Have a Much Darker Tone and One of the Characters Will Undergo a Big Change
First of all, if you haven't seen IT yet, go watch it as soon as you can! It's a seriously great flick that will go down as an all-time favorite for me! After the huge success that it had over the weekend, the movie is definitely getting a sequel and director Andy Muschietti is excited to get to work on it.
In a couple of different interviews, the director talked about the upcoming sequel and explained that it will be a much darker film than the first one. He also revealed that the adult version of the character Mike Hanlon will go through some major changes from the book.
When talking to MTV about the film, the director explained that it's "very important to keep the characters engaged emotionally," but that doesn't mean we can expect the same kind of humor that we saw in the first film. He says:
"It won't be a comedy. If the second movie happens, I really want to recover the dialogue between the two timelines that the book had."
Chapter Two will most likely take place in the present day and focus on the adult versions of the kids that we came to love in the first movie. But, there will be flashbacks involving Bill, Ben, Bev, Richie, Stan, Mike, and Eddie to help move the story along.
“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.”
When it comes to the darkness of the sequel, it sounds like Mike Hanlon will undergo an interesting change. In case you don't know, Mike Hanlon (Chosen Jacobs) stays in Derry after everyone else leaves. He is the watchman over the town, the one who will call the others back if IT returns.
According to Muschietti, the choice Mike makes to stay comes with a high price as it weakens him mentally and physically. In the book, Mike is just a regular old boring librarian, who collects details on Derry's horrific history. In the sequel, the director wants to make him a librarian junkie. He explains to EW:
“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.”
Damn! That's something that I didn't see coming from Mike. It's kind of hard to imagine him as a Junkie because as a fan of the book, that's just not how I see him. I like his character in the book. He's such a likable character and this whole new direction might change that.
The director goes 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.”
Look, I'm open to change if it can some way make the story better. That has yet to be seen. I love what Muschietti did with the first film, so I will keep an open mind and see how this new direction for Mike plays out.
What do you all think of the direction that the director is looking to take Mike Hanlon?