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It Chapter 2 – What Happened When The Cast First Saw Pennywise? | SYFY WIRE

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Bill Skarsgård spent most of “It Chapter Two” just hanging out as himself in full Pennywise makeup, and it freaked his own castmates out more than the character did.

SYFY WIRE sat down with the cast of “It Chapter Two” ahead of its September 6, 2019 theatrical release to ask the question every horror fan wants answered: what’s it actually like meeting the Dancing Clown for the first time? The answers, gathered from the adult and returning child actors alongside director Andy Muschietti, reveal a set that ran nothing like the hushed, isolated shoot of the 2017 original.

• Unlike the first film, where Bill Skarsgård was kept largely separate from the child actors, the “It Chapter Two” adult cast confirmed he did not stay in character or remain isolated between takes.
• James Ransone, who plays adult Eddie Kaspbrak, first spotted Skarsgård being driven past casually in the back of a Suburban on set — not in some dramatic in-character reveal.
• Returning young cast members Sophia Lillis, Jaeden Martell, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs, and Wyatt Oleff helped their adult counterparts, including Jessica Chastain and Andy Bean, bond with their characters through “speed dating” sessions and letters written to their older selves.

No Isolation Booth This Time

When Muschietti shot the 2017 “It,” he deliberately kept Skarsgård at arm’s length from Sophia Lillis, Jaeden Martell, and the rest of the Losers’ Club, protecting the illusion of an ancient, unknowable monster for actors who were mostly kids. That approach flipped entirely for the sequel. With an adult cast that included Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, James McAvoy, James Ransone, Isaiah Mustafa, and Andy Bean, Skarsgård was free to move around set as himself, chatting between setups rather than lurking in a trailer until the cameras rolled.

The Suburban and the Snap-Switch

Ransone’s first “meeting” with Pennywise wasn’t a jump-scare at all — it was watching Skarsgård get shuttled past in the back of a Suburban like any other actor heading to set. Bill Hader described a similarly mundane entry point, joking about Skarsgård strolling up in full clown makeup to say hello like a coworker grabbing coffee, then flipping instantly into the unsettling, predatory Pennywise the second the scene started. That gap — regular guy one second, ancient evil clown the next — is what stuck with the cast more than any single scare.

He’d be standing there chatting in full clown makeup one minute, and then cameras roll and it’s suddenly Pennywise staring back at you.

Letters to Their Older Selves

The returning kid actors weren’t just around for nostalgia. Lillis, Martell, Taylor, Wolfhard, Jacobs, and Oleff ran “speed dating” sessions with their adult counterparts — Chastain sitting with Lillis, Bean pairing off with Martell, and so on — to compare notes on how each Loser ticks. They also wrote letters in character, addressed to their grown-up selves, giving Chastain and company a direct emotional thread to pull from when playing the Beverly Marshes and Bill Denbroughs of 27 years later.

Muschietti’s Supercut Ambition

Beyond the making-of stories, Muschietti used the interview to float a bigger post-release plan: a combined “supercut” of both “It” films, stitched together with unreleased footage and newly shot scenes. It’s the kind of extended-cut idea horror fans chase down for years, and Muschietti made clear it was already on his mind before the sequel had even opened wide.

Anyone hunting for more genre releases to pair with “It Chapter Two” on a theater run can check out the best upcoming horror movies of 2020 & 2021, and Chastain’s fans can catch her in a very different register in the “Ava” assassin thriller trailer. For now, the Losers’ Club’s job is done — Pennywise’s next appearance is whatever Muschietti decides to cut together from the footage still sitting on a hard drive somewhere.