Production for “IT: Chapter 2” is underway, and social media posts from the stars might have just given fans some new information about the highly anticipated sequel.
James McAvoy, who plays the adult version of Losers Club leader Bill Denbrough in “IT: Chapter 2,” posted new photos from working on the movie. The series of Polaroids show him with co-stars Bill Hader, Jessica Chastain and James Ransone. And there’s another photo of co-star Isaiah Mustafa.
Most interesting, though, is that one of the photos shows McAvoy with two of the kid stars of “IT”: Jaeden Lieberher, who plays young Bill in the first “IT,” and Jack Dylan Grazer, who plays young Eddie Kaspbrak, the character Ransone is taking on as an adult. The kids’ return to the movie has been rumored, but never announced by filmmakers. Photos of them hanging out with McAvoy and others from the “IT: Chapter 2” cast suggests we might not have seen the end of the kids’ half of the story in “IT,” and that more events from 1989 might pop up in the second part of the series.
If you’re unfamiliar with the story of “IT,” or the Stephen King novel on which it’s based, it covers two key time periods. Without spoilers: The first is when the seven main characters, who call themselves “The Losers Club,” were kids in their home town of Derry, Maine, during a summer in which children are being terrorized by a demonic clown called Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard). The second time period is 27 years later, when the Losers come back together after years apart to deal with the threat to Derry once and for all.
The novel portrays the two time periods side-by-side as a series of memories and flashbacks as the adult Losers head back to Maine, but the film adaptation has split them evenly. Last year’s “IT” covered the portion about the children, which took place in 1989; “IT: Chapter 2” was seemingly just the adult half of the story, set in the present day.
McAvoy’s photos suggest that, like the book it’s based on, “IT: Chapter 2” might be a bit more fluid with its time periods.
Chastain, who plays the adult version of Beverly Marsh in the second part of the horror hit, also posted a photo on Instagram celebrating her start of filming. The photo shows the transformation of Beverly from child to adult — the left side of the photo is the face of Sophia Lillis, who played Beverly as a child in last year’s “IT,” while the right side is Chastain’s face, Beverly’s grown-up version.
“IT: Chapter 2” is currently set to hit theaters in September 2019.