If you’re worried that Pennywise has lost some of his bite in the past two years, don’t; according to It: Chapter Two director Andy Muschietti, Stephen King’s killer clown is deadlier than ever.
In fact, everything from Chapter One – the horror, the blood-curdling sense of unease – has been “cranked up” in preparation of Pennywise’s second coming, though we have a sneaking suspicion the Losers Club will have the last laugh.
As part of Entertainment Weekly’s ongoing SDCC preview, Andy Muschietti himself offered up some tantalizing new details about the spooky sequel, along with his plan to honor the spirit of the original – not surprising, given its masterful mix of humor and horror propelled It: Chapter One past $700M worldwide.
I think that everything that people love from the first one, like the humor and the emotions and the horror, will all be there, and cranked up, in some cases.
Muschietti has quite the ensemble cast at his disposal, too. He’s reunited with Mama actress Jessica Chastain (adult Beverly Marsh), for one, while managing to assemble the likes of James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, and Jay Ryan as Ben, the only surviving member of the Losers Club to remain at Derry over the past 27 years. He’ll soon be reunited with his childhood friends, dredging up long-forgotten memories of killer clowns and nightmarish hallucinations.
On a more general note, though, Muschietti added that he’s much more comfortable on the set of Chapter Two than he was on Chapter One.
In general, I feel more comfortable. I have more toys. On the first one, I was struggling to get a Technocrane [a massive telescopic crane for a camera] on certain days. But now the Technocrane is always there!
Look for It: Chapter Two to unleash a whole new helping of nightmare fuel on September 6th.