IT Sequel Will Continue the Story Into an Even Darker Future

Despite poor reviews, director Andrés Muschietti‘s (Mama) adaptation of Stephen King’s IT has utterly destroyed the box office, bringing in $123 million in its opening weekend to obliterate the previous R-rated horror film record of $52.5 million, set by Paranormal Activity 3. The movie will likely see a drastic second-weekend drop, but the numbers are already so good that a sequel, or rather a continuation, of the story is all but certain at this point.

While the greenlight has yet to be given (at least publicly), Muschietti verified in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly that Bill Skarsgard is locked for a second picture as the evil clown entity Pennywise, and that the writing and development of Chapter Two is currently underway. The second movie will be “darker” and set in the present day, focusing on the members of the Losers Club as adults, who come together in honor of the blood-oath they swore to fight Pennywise 27 years later, but it will also feature “integral” flashbacks starring the young Losers.

One of the characters most affected by the experience with Pennywise is Mike Hanlon (Chosen Jacobs), whose lifelong dedication to researching the entity has taken him down some dark roads, reveals Muschietti.

I want to make his character the one pivotal character who brings them all together, but staying in Derry took a toll with him. I want him to be a junkie actually. A librarian junkie. When the second movie starts, he’s a wreck. … He’s not just the collector of knowledge of what Pennywise has been doing in Derry. He will bear the role of trying to figure out how to defeat him. The only way he can do that is to take drugs and alter his mind.

Chase Palmer & Cary Fukunaga and Gary Dauberman wrote the screenplay adaptation. Finn Wolfhard, Jaeden Lieberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Wyatt Oleff, Jack Dylan Grazer and Nicholas Hamilton also star.

IT is in theaters now.