IT: CHAPTER 2

Pennywise is back to haunt your nightmares

‘It’s surreal, because really big stars are joining the band’ Bill Skarsgård

Director Andy Muschietti

Starring James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Jay Ryan, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Bill Skarsgård

Back in September 2017, the same weekend

It enjoyed a monster box-office opening of $123m in the US alone, director Andy Muschietti already knew who he wanted for the sequel. “Jessi [Chastain] is an amazing actress and very good friend and I would love her to play Beverly,” he said. Screech forward a year, and Chastain is indeed playing the grown-up Beverly in a sequel that is set 27 years after the horrifying events of the first film.

Where the original It revolved around the teenage Losers Club as they fought evil in Derry, Maine, the sequel catches up with them as adults who have invariably moved on from their childhood horrors – only to find themselves drawn back home after a death. Alongside Chastain are James McAvoy as Bill, Jay Ryan as Ben, Bill Hader as Richie and Isaiah Mustafa as Mike, while the original cast will return in flashbacks.

Plus, of course, Bill Skarsgård is back as killer clown Pennywise. “It’s weird and it’s surreal because some of them are really big stars and they’re coming in to your thing,” the Swede says of the incoming grown-ups. “They’re joining the band, in a way.” He also reveals it was strange reprising the role: “This time it’s almost like I’m re-adapting myself.”

Shooting wrapped on Halloween in 2018, and the grown-ups quickly discovered that fighting pure evil ain’t easy. “Slight double thigh strain, caught it early, no worries,” McAvoy assured fans after he suffered an injury on set. And while little is known about how closely Muschietti will stick to the Stephen King source material, if the 2017 film’s anything to go by, this “darker, scarier” sequel is guaranteed to terrify.“Bring your adult diapers,” warns Muschietti. Gulp. JW it: chapter 2 openS on 6 September.