In 2019, director Andy Muschietti is bringing the second chapter of IT to the big screen. This time around, he’s also bringing together the adult version of the Losers Club, who will share screentime with their younger counterparts, the stars of IT: Chapter One. We’ve known for a while now the casting for several of the adult Losers is uncanny, but at CinemaCon 2019, Andy Muschietti revealed how he decided on who to cast in terms of the adult actors in the movie.
I wanted the adult Losers to be believable and that people believed that we’re talking about the same people. It was a journey of finding and looking. I’m proud to say that all of the people I wanted in the movie finally landed in it. It was incredible to find that all the people standing here were so excited to be a part of it.
When looking at casting, Andy Muschietti also mentioned he was looking for “the same energy and DNA” between the youngsters and the older cast while IT: Chapter Two was coming together.
At CinemaCon 2019, the audience became the first to see both iterations of The Losers Club come out onstage together. Jessica Chastain stood next to Sophia Lillis, James Ransome next to Jack Dylan Glazer, James McAvoy (although Jaeden Martell was not present), Bill Hader next to Finn Wolfhard, Isaiah Mustafa next to Chosen Jacobs, and Jay Ryan next to Jeremy Ray Taylor.
IT: Chapter Two – An Updated Cast List
The whole gang was onstage together and even just looking at them side-by-side, a lot of the castings are pretty uncanny, particularly Bill Hader and Finn Wolfhard. Hader was actually cast thanks to Wolfhard’s wishes and Hader credited the younger actor for landing the role. This happened after Wolfhard admitted he just started thinking about an actor who he felt was already like his character Richie. He said:
We always talked about it. We didn’t know for sure if there was going to be a Part 2 or anything. Well I didn’t at least, and I was like, you know, Richie’s funny to himself.
Quipped Bill Hader,
Yeah, Richie thinks he’s funny. Who’s an asshole who thinks he’s really funny? Who’s a guy who laughs at himself a lot? Who laughs at his own jokes a lot? There’s only one guy in the universe.
Although he's joking above, Bill Hader ultimately credited Finn Wolfhard for thinking of him before casting commenced. Wolfhard’s not the only one who picked out the actor he wanted to play an adult version of him. Sophia Lillis had previously said she wanted Jessica Chastain for the role of Beverly and that panned out as well.
While the rest of the castings didn’t play out exactly like the kids originally guessed, there’s no doubt IT: Chapter Two’s cast is stacked. Now we’ll just have to wait and see how it pans out on the big screen.
The good news? Along with the cast, CinemaCon also revealed some first look footage at IT: Chapter Two with a scene featuring Jessica Chastain. If you’d like to get a little more spoilery than that, we have you covered.
