It Chapter Two is a 2019 American supernatural horror film directed by Andy Muschietti from a screenplay by Gary Dauberman. It is the sequel to It (2017) and the second of a two-part adaptation of the 1986 novel It by Stephen King. The film stars James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone, Andy Bean, and Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Set 27 years after the events of the first film, the story centers on the Losers Club and their relationships as they reunite to destroy It once and for all.
Talks for an It sequel began in February 2016. By September 2017, New Line Cinema announced that the film would be released in September 2019, with Dauberman writing the script and Muschietti to direct. On a $79 million budget, filming took place from June to November 2018 at Pinewood Toronto Studios, Oshawa, Toronto, and Port Hope.
It Chapter Two premiered at the Regency Village Theatre in Los Angeles on August 26, 2019, and was released in the United States on September 6. The film received mixed reviews from critics with praise for its performances (particularly Skarsgård and Hader) but criticism for its runtime with many deeming it inferior to the first film. The film grossed $473.1 million worldwide. A prequel television series, titled It: Welcome to Derry, premiered on HBO on October 26, 2025, with Skarsgård reprising his role as Pennywise.
Plot
In 2016, twenty-seven years after It's initial defeat, Pennywise the Dancing Clown returns to Derry, Maine, killing a man named Adrian Mellon after he and his boyfriend are brutally assaulted by homophobic teens.
Mike Hanlon, the only member of the Losers Club who remained in Derry, summons the other members, Bill Denbrough, Ben Hanscom, Beverly Marsh, Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak, and Stanley Uris. All of them return to Derry, except for Stanley, who kills himself. Mike refreshes the Losers' memories before It itself reveals the news of Stanley's suicide to them. Richie and Eddie decide to leave, until Beverly reveals that she has had visions of their deaths should they fail to fulfill their oath to kill It. Meanwhile, It kills a little girl named Victoria at a baseball game and helps Henry Bowers, who was arrested for the murder of his father, escape from a mental institution.
At the library, Mike shows Bill, via a drug-induced vision, that the Native American "Ritual of Chüd" can defeat It using artifacts from the Losers' past; Bill recovers Georgie's paper sailboat and meets a young boy, Dean, whom he warns to leave Derry. Beverly retrieves Ben's love poem from her childhood home before being attacked by It in the form of a demonic Ingrid Kersh. Richie goes to an abandoned cinema where he collects a game token and encounters Pennywise, who confronts him on his hidden homosexuality. Ben returns to the town's high school, choosing to use an old yearbook page signed by Beverly as his artifact, while Eddie recovers an inhaler from a pharmacy and is attacked by the Leper.
Returning to the hotel, Richie abandons the group, while Bill leaves for the town carnival and fails to save Dean from Pennywise. Bowers viciously attacks Eddie at the hotel before driving to the library. There, Bowers attacks Mike before Richie returns and impales him, killing him. The Losers then travel to the Neibolt house where they convince Bill, distraught over his failure to save Dean, not to face It alone.
With their memories now fully restored, the group descends into a cavern beneath the sewers. Mike provides a rock from the Losers' fight with the Bowers Gang, and they perform the ritual using the artifacts in the remains of the meteor that brought It to Earth. The ritual fails as It emerges as an enormous Pennywise-spider hybrid and pressures Mike into revealing that the ritual killed the original native performers. It attacks the Losers and places Bill, Ben, and Beverly in individual hallucinations. They escape once Bill releases his guilt over being indirectly responsible for Georgie's death and Beverly realizes again that Ben was the one who wrote the love letter to her. When Richie is made catatonic by It, Eddie saves him but is fatally impaled. A weakened Eddie then explains how he made It feel small earlier, by choking the Leper nearly to death.
The Losers confront It about how they have overcome their fears, and proceed to psychologically antagonise and belittle It. Pennywise gradually becomes smaller and smaller with each insult, cycling through its many forms before eventually mutating into a crying, baby-like Pennywise. Mike pulls out It's heart, which he and the Losers crush with their bare hands. Pennywise laughs at its defeat, and dies.
They return to Eddie to find he has died from his injuries, and are forced to leave his body behind as It's cavern implodes, destroying the Neibolt House. At the water-logged quarry, the Losers comfort Richie, and Ben and Beverly kiss. Later, the scars on the Losers' hands disappear. After the Losers part ways, Ben and Beverly get married, Richie returns to the kissing bridge where he had once carved his and Eddie's initials, Mike moves out of Derry, and Bill begins writing his new story. Mike reveals to Bill that Stanley had written the Losers letters prior to his suicide; Stanley was too scared to face It, and his suicide was intended to strengthen his friends against It. He ends his letter with the words "We're Losers, and always will be".
Cast
Jessica Chastain as Beverly Marsh, the only female member of the Losers Club, who was abused by her father and bullied at school over false rumors of promiscuity. Adult Beverly is a successful fashion designer in New York City along with her abusive husband Tom Rogan. Sophia Lillis as young Beverly Marsh James McAvoy as Bill Denbrough, the determined former leader of the Losers Club who hunted down and defeated It in the summer of 1989 after his younger brother Georgie is killed. As an adult, Bill is a successful mystery novelist in Los Angeles whose works are often criticized for having disappointing endings. Jaeden Martell as young Bill Denbrough Bill Hader as Richie Tozier, Bill's bespectacled best friend and fellow member of the Losers Club, whose loud mouth and foul language often get him into trouble. As an adult, Richie is a successful stand-up comic in Chicago. Finn Wolfhard as young Richie Tozier Isaiah Mustafa as Mike Hanlon, the sole member of the Losers Club who still lives in Derry, where he is the town librarian. As the only person who remembers everything that happened during the summer of 1989, he summons the other Losers back to Derry when It resurfaces. Chosen Jacobs as young Mike Hanlon Tristian Levi Cox and Torian Matthew Cox as 4-year-old Mike Hanlon Jay Ryan as Ben Hanscom, a member of the Losers Club. As a child, he was bullied for being overweight and he had a crush on Beverly. As an adult, he is a physically fit architect living in upstate New York, where he runs his company, Hanscom Architecture. Jeremy Ray Taylor as young Ben Hanscom James Ransone as Eddie Kaspbrak, the youngest member of the Losers Club, a hypochondriac, and a victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. As an adult, Eddie is a successful risk analyst for an insurance firm in New York City and is married to Myra, who is very similar to his over-protective mother Sonia. Jack Dylan Grazer as young Eddie Kaspbrak Andy Bean as Stanley Uris, a timid and pragmatic member of the Losers Club who aided in the battle against It in 1989, but fears It more than the others do. As an adult, he becomes a founding partner of a large accounting firm in Atlanta and is married to Patty Blum. Wyatt Oleff as young Stanley Uris Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, an ancient predatory creature from another dimension which was brought to Earth millions of years ago by a meteorite. It awakens every 27 years to feed on the fear of children that it kills. Pennywise is It's favorite and primary guise, although It can take many forms in order to instill fear into its victims. It was overpowered and seriously wounded by the Losers Club in 1989.
Other guises of It include Joan Gregson as Mrs. Kersh, an apparently sweet and gentle elderly woman (actually a monster) who lives in Beverly's childhood home; Javier Botet as Hobo, a leper who encountered Eddie at the 29 Neibolt Street house, and also as The Witch, the monstrous form of Mrs. Kersh; Jackson Robert Scott as Georgie Denbrough, Bill's late younger brother; and Owen Teague as Patrick Hockstetter, a young hoodlum who was eaten by Pennywise in the sewers in 1989. It also briefly appears without clown makeup, under the alias Bob Gray (also Skarsgård).
Additionally, Teach Grant portrays Henry Bowers, who terrorized the Losers Club in the summer of 1989 before he was incarcerated for killing his father while under It's influence. Nicholas Hamilton reprises his role as the young Henry Bowers. Molly Atkinson reprises her role as Sonia, Eddie's Munchausen syndrome by proxy-stricken mother, and also plays Eddie's wife Myra. Xavier Dolan and Taylor Frey appear as Adrian Mellon and Don Hagarty, a gay couple who are attacked by a group of youths during a carnival before Adrian is killed by It, while Jake Weary appears as Webby, the leader of the youth gang who attacks Adrian and Don. Luke Roessler portrays Dean, a young boy who meets Bill near the storm drain where Georgie was killed in 1988, and who is later killed by It at the Funland. Ryan Kiera Armstrong appears as Victoria Fuller, a girl who is killed by It after he lures her to under the bleachers at a baseball game. Jess Weixler portrays Bill's wife Audra Denbrough (née Phillips), Will Beinbrink portrays Beverly's abusive husband Tom Rogan, and Martha Girvin appears as Stanley's wife Patty. Stephen Bogaert, Jake Sim, Logan Thompson, Joe Bostick and Megan Charpentier reprise their roles from the first film as Beverly's abusive father Alvin Marsh, Henry's friends Reginald "Belch" Huggins and Victor "Vic" Criss, pharmacist Mr. Keene, and Keene's daughter Greta, respectively. Juno Rinaldi portrays the adult Greta. Katie Lunman reprises her role as Betty Ripsom in a vocal capacity, in addition to portraying a second character, Chris Unwin, one of Webby's friends who participates in assaulting Adrian and Don. Janet Porter plays Richie's mother, Marge Tozier, in a flashback.
Stephen King cameos as a pawn shop owner, the film's director Andy Muschietti cameos as a customer at the pharmacy, and filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich cameos as himself, the director of the film based on Bill's novel. Brandon Crane (who played young Ben Hanscom in the 1990 two-episode television miniseries adaptation of It) also makes a cameo appearance as a board member of Hanscom Architecture.
Production Development In February 2016, producer Roy Lee, in an interview with Collider, mentioned a second It film, remarking, "[Dauberman] wrote the most recent draft working with [Muschietti], so it's being envisioned as two movies."
In July 2017, Muschietti revealed that production was set to begin in the spring of 2018, adding, "We'll probably have a script for the second part in January . Ideally, we would start prep in March. Part one is only about the kids. Part two is about these characters 27 years later as adults, with flashbacks to 1989 when they were kids." Muschietti spoke of looking forward to having a dialogue in the second film that does not exist within the first, stating, "... it seems like we're going to do it. It's the second half, it's not a sequel. It's the second half and it's very connected to the first one." Muschietti stated that two cut scenes from the first film will possibly be included in the second, one of which being the fire at the Black Spot from the book.