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.
In 2016, twenty-seven years after It's initial defeat,[a] Pennywise the Clown returns to Derry, Maine, killing a man named Adrian Mellon after he and his boyfriend are brutally assaulted by homophobic teens.
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.
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.
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.
They escape once Bill releases his guilt over being indirectly responsible for Georgie's death and when Beverly realizes Ben was the one who wrote the love letter to her.
The Losers confront It about how they have overcome their fears, and are no longer scared of the entity, causing It to shrink to a small weakened Pennywise.
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.
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.
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.
Additionally, Teach Grant portrays Henry Bowers,[4] who terrorized the Losers Club in the summer of 1989 before he was incarcerated for killing his father while under It's influence.
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.
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.
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.
[10] On 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 September 2017, Muschietti and his sister mentioned that Chastain would be their top choice to play the adult version of Beverly Marsh.
By April 2018, Hader and James McAvoy were in talks to join the cast to play adult versions of Richie Tozier and Bill Denbrough, respectively.
[27] In May 2018, James Ransone, Jay Ryan and Andy Bean joined the cast to portray adult versions of Eddie Kaspbrak, Ben Hanscom, and Stanley Uris, respectively.
[28][29][30] In June 2018, Isaiah Mustafa joined as the adult version of Mike Hanlon, while Xavier Dolan and Will Beinbrink were also cast as Adrian Mellon and Tom Rogan, respectively.
[49] It Chapter Two had its world premiere at the Regency Village Theater in Los Angeles, California on August 26, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on September 6, 2019, by Warner Bros.
The lower debut was attributed to a more mixed critical reception, as well as the nearly three-hour runtime, which some exhibitors said possibly curbed business.
The website's consensus reads: "It Chapter Two proves bigger doesn't always mean scarier for horror sequels, but a fine cast and faithful approach to the source material keep this follow-up afloat.
[2] Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, Richard Roeper praised the production design and cast, but said the film was not as scary as the first, specifying, "For all of Muschietti's visual flourishes and with the greatly talented Bill Skarsgård again delivering a madcap, disturbingly effective, all-in performance as the dreaded Pennywise, It Chapter Two had a relatively muted impact on me.
"[58] Variety's Peter Debruge wrote, "The clown is back, and the kids have grown up in part two of Stephen King's monster novel, which inspires an overlong, but suitably scary sequel,"[59] while Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com gave the film two-and-a-half out of four stars, stating that "It Chapter Two can be a sprawling, unwieldy mess—overlong, overstuffed and full of frustrating detours—but its casting is so spot-on, its actors have such great chemistry and its monster effects are so deliriously ghoulish that the film keeps you hooked.
Club gave the film a grade of "C+," praising Hader's performance but summarizing, "What a shame, then to build this beautiful stage, populate it with talented actors and high-level craftspeople, and then drop them all through the trap door of plodding humor and scattershot plotting.
[62] Rich Juzwiak of Jezebel gave the film a negative review, calling it "meandering" and "a movie that has no sense of its rules".
"[67] Jessica Lachenal of Bustle criticized the film as running the risk of glorifying Stan's suicide as a "noble sacrifice", stating that it sends a dangerous message to those struggling with mental health issues.
"[74] In March 2022, Variety reported that the Muschiettis and Jason Fuchs are in development of and executive producing a prequel series for Max titled It: Welcome to Derry that will take place in the 1960s before the events of It Chapter One and will also include the origin story of Pennywise the Clown.
[79] In April 2023, Max announced that Taylour Paige, Jovan Adepo, James Remar, and Chris Chalk were cast in undisclosed roles.