5 Years Ago, A Huge Horror Box Office Hit Had To Live In The Shadow Of Its Predecessor

The sequel brings The Losers Club — who’ve long since gone their separate ways – back together as adults, 27 years after the events of the first film. Pennywise has re-emerged and the Losers must face their fears, band together, and defeat the deadly clown for good. Wisely, Muschietti brought back the younger cast in certain flashback scenes, including Jaeden Martell (Bill), Wyatt Oleff (Stanley), Jack Dylan Grazer (Eddie), Finn Wolfhard (Richie), Chosen Jacobs (Mike), Jeremy Ray Taylor (Ben), and Sophia Lillis (Beverly).

However, the success of the first “It” meant that they could dream big when it came to casting the adult versions of the Losers. As a result, Muschietti nabbed James McAvoy (“Split”), Andy Bean (“Power”), James Ransone (“Sinister”), Bill Hader (“Saturday Night Live”), Isaiah Mustafa (“Shadowhunters”), Jay Ryan (“Beauty and the Beast”), and then-Oscar-nominee (now Oscar-winner) Jessica Chastain (“Zero Dark Thirty”). It was a mix of A-listers, up-and-comers, and character actors that felt like a win from top to bottom.

The problem, from a production standpoint, was the younger stars. Two years is a lot of time for a teenager and several members of the cast noticeably aged in that time. As a result, they had to be digitally de-aged for “Chapter Two,” which Muscietti said was “part of the budget” from the beginning. Still, it was an imperfect solution to one of the problems that the sequel had to contend with. Namely, could focusing on the adult cast possibly capture that same vibe of the first film?

“In a weird way this movie resembles the structure of the book, in that it goes back and forth,” McAvoy said in July 2010 a couple of months before the film hit theaters. Muschietti also said that the things people loved about the first movie would be “cranked up” in the sequel. Unfortunately, the reality is that being a kid is far more fun than being an adult, even when creepy clowns are involved. That was always going to be a hurdle in choosing to adapt the book this way. Even so, audiences were bought in at a certain level given just how much of a cultural phenomenon that the first movie had become. That was both a blessing and a curse.