One of the most hyped of September is without a doubt IT. An adaptation of Stephen King's novel, the movie has been all over social media for the last few months and is currently tracking to have a great opening weekend at the box office. So, of course, a sequel is in development that will follow the second half of the book with the Losers Club as adults. While the sequel will feature a new group of actors, director Andy Muschietti also teased that film will tackle more of the otherworldly elements of It.
In respect to those who may be trying to finish the novel before the movie or just want to watch the films, I won't get into specifics. But it shouldn't be a shocker to learn that a child-eating clown who can shapeshift into your worst nightmare isn't exactly from planet Earth. Pennywise is from...somewhere else, a place that is revealed over the course of the story. The Losers' Club learns about this as children, but Andy Muschietti told Yahoo! Movies he is saving this element of the story for the sequel.
Getting in to that other dimension --- the other side --- was something that we could introduce in the second part. In the book the perspective of the writing... is always with the Losers, so everything they know about Pennywise is very speculative and shrouded in absurdity, so I wanted to respect that mystery feeling of not knowing what's on the other side.
The IT novel intercuts the story of the Losers' Club between when they are children and when they are adults. The movies are opting to split that time, with the first movie following the kids and the sequel mostly following them as adults. Fans of the book know that the ending for the kids gets pretty nuts, but the film will present a more grounded take. This is in part to avoid bloating the budget with a VFX-heavy ending, but it could be off-putting to end on such grand scale when the rest of the movie is relatively down-to-earth. In addition to building up the mystery of Pennywise's origins, Andy Muschietti also wanted to leave something for the sequel.
I also wanted to leave something for the second half, so I didn't want to get in trouble with that --- going into the macroverse or that transdimensional stuff --- and keep it grounded, from the point of view of the kids.
While IT looks to be a mostly faithful adaptation of the source material, some of the rougher aspects of the novel have been abandoned for the movie. The original version of the movie from when Cary Fukunaga was attached actually did end in a big third act battle sequence in this other dimension, but Muschietti's version is downplaying some of those more supernatural elements for the time being.
IT will release in theaters on September 8, 2017.
