IT Chapter Two director Andy Muschietti brought something a little special with him to ScareDiego at San Diego Comic-Con 2018: behind-the-scenes footage of the Losers’ Club reuniting as adults back in Derry, Maine. The sequel to last year’s smash horror hit began filming a few weeks ago, and while the cast of IT will be returning in flashbacks, this time the action will shift to 27 years later as the group of friends attempt to rid the world of Pennywise once and for all.

The new cast includes James McAvoy as Bill Denbrough, Isaiah Mustafa as Mike Hanlon, Jessica Chastain as Beverly Marsh, Jay Ryan as Ben Hanscom, James Ransone as Eddie Kaspbrak, and Andy Bean as Stanley Uris. Naturally, Bill Skarsgård will also be returning as the terrifying specter of Pennywise the Clown - the most commonly seen form of the creature known only as “It.”

Screen Rant’s own Ben Kendrick attended ScareDiego this year, and reports that the IT Chapter Two preview included behind-the-scenes footage of the new cast of adult actors meeting back at a restaurant in Derry. Bill Hader (who plays the grown-up version of Finn Wolfhard’s character, Richie Tozier) says, “‘Sup, losers? What do you want to talk about?” It sounds like a fairly close approximation of the scene in the novel in which Mike calls his old friends back to Derry and asks them to make good on their promise all those years ago - to prevent another generation of kids from getting killed by It.

Plenty of people were skeptical when news broke of a new IT adaptation, given the nostalgia for the 1990s TV miniseries adaptation starring Tim Curry. However, Muschietti’s film was highly praised by critics and positive word of mouth (along with some very effective trailers) propelled it to gross more than $700 million worldwide at the box office - a huge achievement for an R-rated movie with a modest budget. Crucial to the first movie’s success was its strong cast of child actors and their chemistry, and IT Chapter Two certainly seems to have nailed casting once again.

Unfortunately the footage shown at Comic-Con hasn’t been made available online, and with the movie not arriving in theaters for well over a year, we may have to wait patiently for our first proper look at IT Chapter Two. Still, with the same director onboard, a stellar adult cast, and a strong first act to follow, it will almost certainly be worth the wait.

More: IT Chapter 2: Every Update You Need To Know

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Header art by Shaun Watson.

  • IT Chapter Two Release Date: 2019-09-06