While the upcoming horror sequel It Chapter Two is set to focus primarily on the adult version of The Losers’ Club, the young stars of the 2017 Stephen King adaptation are on board to reprise their roles for flashback sequences.
Given the two year gap between production on the films, and the fact that kid actors have a pesky habit of growing up, director Andy Muschietti has revealed that the young stars are being digitally de-aged to ensure their scenes fit with the first instalment.
“From the beginning, we knew that that would be part of the budget—the visual effects to address that,” said Muschietti. “So, we’re going to de-age the kids.”
With visual effects technology improving, digital de-aging is starting to become more and more commonplace, and one has to wonder how long it will be before Hollywood decides to go the full hog and de-age its adult actors back to children for a film like this.
Because every 27 years evil revisits the town of Derry, Maine, “It Chapter Two” brings the characters—who’ve long since gone their separate ways—back together as adults, nearly three decades after the events of the first film.
It Chapter Two will see Bill Skarsgard reprising his role as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, while Jessica Chastain (Beverly), James McAvoy (Bill), Bill Hader (Richie), James Ransone (Eddie), Andy Bean (Stanley), Jay Ryan (Ben) and Isaiah Mustafa (Mike) star as the adult versions of The Losers’ Club. Young It stars Jaeden Martell, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Oleff, Jack Dylan Grazer and Chosen Jacobs are also set to reprise their roles from the first movie in flashback sequences. It is set for release on September 6th 2019.