Released:  September 6, 2019

Based On The Book: “It” by Stephen King

Directed By:   Andy Muschietti

Screenplay By:  Gary Dauberman

Stars: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone, Andy Bean, Bill Skarsgårdand a bunch of other actors.

Plot:  Twenty-seven years after their first encounter with the terrifying Pennywise, the Losers Club have grown up and moved away, until a devastating phone call brings them back.

Tagline: You’ll float again.

How did this movie do?
Budget: $79 Million
Box Office: $473 Million

• (at around 2h 30 mins) Eddie’s death in the book was a bit more gruesome than in the film. In the book, It bites Eddie’s arm off and tosses him aside. Eddie then dies of shock from pain and blood loss. In the film, when the Losers are standing around the very weakened Pennywise, Richie approaches and rips one of It’s arms off.
  
  
• The ending of the movie differs than the book, in that Pennywise is revealed to be a female spider in its most true form to humans and the Loser Club must destroy all the eggs that were laid because they’re about to hatch.
  
  
• The climax of the book and movie are much different. In the book, Mike is severely wounded after his encounter with Henry Bowers and unable to join the remaining Losers in the sewers for the final battle against Pennywise. Stanley Uris also dies without leaving a suicide note or sending a letter to the rest of the group. Also, the Losers do begin to forget their memories again after parting ways. Whereas in the movie, it’s implied that they keep in contact with one another judging by the scene where Mike and Bill talk over the phone after the events.
  
  
• When IT is defeated in the novel, the entire town of Derry is destroyed, implying that not only does IT reside in the town, IT IS the town.
  
  
• In the novel, Beverly’s husband follows her to Derry, seeking revenge for her leaving him, but dies when he sees Pennywise in his true form.
  
  
• Even though this never happens in the film due to Audra’s subplot being removed, during the final battle between The Losers Club and Pennywise/It in the novel, Pennywise actually begs for his life and specifically bargains with Bill, stating that he’ll give him his wife back and grant him eternal life. Bill rejects this and proceeds to kill him.

Nightmare on Elm Street References

• Both target mostly children
  
  
• Both Freddy & IT feed on the fear of children
  
  
• Both have a weakness to those who overcome their fear
  
  
• Both create realistic dreamscape illusions to trick their prey
  
  
• In both Chapter 2 and Nightmare 5 see adults returning to fight the villain

• The café Dreamers is next to the Theater Marquee of “Nightmare on Elm Street 5”.
  
  
• The actor who played the presenter during Ben’s board meeting is the original Ben from the 1990’s adaptation (Brandon Crane). So in a way, he’s also Ben.
  
  
• Bill Skarsgård (Pennywise) has stated that he had more fun on set during this movie because he was actually able to talk to and hang out with his adult co-stars. Skarsgård had minimal contact with his child co-stars in It (2017) so that they would be more genuinely scared of Pennywise once they saw him. He also had to calm them down after each shot.
  
  
• Bill Hader was approached for the role of Richie Tozier based on Finn Wolfhard’s wish to cast him in the sequel. Hader, who had never met Wolfhard, was extremely flattered that Wolfhard wanted him to take on the role.
  
  
• Bill Skarsgård stated in an interview that even after filming had wrapped, he would have nightmares of Pennywise. In these nightmares, he would have to battle Pennywise just as the characters in the film do.
  
  
• Pennywise has only seven minutes of dialogue in the entire film. 4 minutes in the first movie.
  
  
• The members of the Losers’ Club from It (2017) were asked who they wanted to play their adult parts: Finn Wolfhard (Richie Tozier) said Bill Hader, Sophia Lillis (Beverly Marsh) said Jessica Chastain, Chosen Jacobs (Mike Hanlon) said Chadwick Boseman, Jack Dylan Grazer (Eddie Kaspbrak) said Jake Gyllenhaal, Wyatt Oleff (Stanley Uris) said Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeremy Ray Taylor (Ben Hanscom) said Chris Pratt and Jaeden Martell (Bill Denbrough) said Christian Bale. Bale turned down the Bill Denbrough role outright while Boseman was unavailable due to his Marvel-contractual obligations as Black Panther (2018). Wolfhard and Lillis’s choices were the only two that ended up being cast. James McAvoy was recommended by Chastain in returning the favor of her being recommended by him to Simon Kinberg for the antagonist role of Vuk in their previous collaboration X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019).
  
  
• (at around 1h 18 mins) A license plate on the wall above the owner of the antique shop is “CQB 241” the same as the license plate in Christine (1983). The owner, who is played by Stephen King, the original author of both “Christine” and “It”, also asks for $300 for the bike, the same amount that George LeBay initially offers to sell the car for.
  
  
• Finn Wolfhard (young Richie Tozier) filmed this film and season 3 of Stranger Things (2016) at the same time. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he said it was tiring and stressful, but rewarding at the same time to shoot It Chapter Two during his off days from filming Stranger Things S3.
  
  
• According to director Andy Muschietti, the film has over 4 hours of footage which had to be cut down to 2 hours and 49 minutes. Muschietti states that he plans to use the unused footage and scenes not yet filmed for a possible future film related to the “It” franchise.
  
  
• The adult Losers wear only one outfit each while they’re in Derry, though 50-60 versions of the outfits were designed for the actors to wear throughout filming.
  
  
• Stephen King calls the film not a sequel but the second half to It (2017).
  
  
• There were rumors at one point Bill Skarsgård would not be returning to play Pennywise in this film due to concerns that the role was negatively affecting his mental health. However, a week before the first film was released, Skarsgard confirmed that he was officially attached to the sequel and had already began meeting with director Andy Muschietti to discuss ideas for the character and the film.
  
  
• As opposed to being light silver in It (2017), Pennywise’s suit is dark gray in this film. This is to show the 27 years since he’d last fought The Losers Club had gone by.
• The young Losers Club actors were de-aged in the film, the first time ever in a horror film.
  
  
• With It (2017) and this film, the It movie franchise has made over $1 billion worldwide, making it one of the most successful horror franchises of all time.
  
  
• This film uses the word “fuck” 108 times.
  
  
• Body Count: 8 (Including Pennywise)
  
  
• This is the third Stephen King film adaptation released in 2019, following Pet Sematary (2019) and Doctor Sleep (2019). It (2017) was also the second-wide release Stephen King film adaptation in 2017 following The Dark Tower (2017).
  
  
• (at around 40 mins) The scene with the firefly is designed to mirror the first film’s sewer scene with Georgie.
  
  
• The original Stephen King novel runs to 1,138 pages.
  
  
• (at around 2h 40 mins) The room where Bill is typing at the end of the film, when he gets the call from Mike, is the same room from Stand by Me (1986).
  
  
• 4500 gallons of fake blood were used in Beverly’s toilet cubicle scene at the climax, a world record for a theatrical production.
  
  
• (at around 1h 55 mins) When Richie (Bill Hader) sees the Stanley-spider, he says, “You’ve got to be fucking kidding.” In John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), Palmer says the same line reacting to a similar spider-head creature.
  
  
• (at around 2h 20 mins) During the final battle, Richie calls Pennywise a “sloppy bitch”. This is a reference to a 2016 interview of Bill Hader on Conan (2010) (Hader revealed he would call his friend that when the friend would beat him at “Goldeneye”).