No More Clowning Around: 'IT' Director Promises An Even Darker Tone For 'Part 2'

After all the frights and frolics of the IT movie, fans of things that go bump in the night are already preparing to "float" again for the hotly anticipated sequel to this year's biggest horror. If you can't wait to see Bill Skarsgård stick on a red nose and a murderous smile once more, it seems that you aren't alone, and the merry-go-round is already turning.

With more jumps than your average trip to the circus, it might seem hard to imagine a sequel being any scarier, but it sounds like we are in for a treat. If the rotting corpse of lil' Georgie clogging up the drain wasn't bad enough, director #AndyMuschietti has promised that the sequel to the haunting horror will be even darker.

Darker In Derry

Already popping records like big red balloons, it is no surprise that Warner Bros. is already working on dragging that creepy clown from the sewers to give us the willies for a sequel. Given that #StephenKing's 1,138-page book lends itself perfectly to a two-part saga, pals of Pennywise had always expected Muschietti to move forward with Part 2 if the first one were a success. While it is as simple as picking up King's 1986 novel to find out what happens next, Muschietti has teased that his sequel will take a different tone to its predecessor.

Speaking to MTV, the director revealed that we shouldn't expect the comedy stylings of Finn Wolfhard's legacy as Richie "Trashmouth" Tozier to transfer into whoever plays him in the sequel:

"It won't be a comedy. If the second movie happens, I really want to recover the dialogue between the two timelines that the book had."

The idea of kids be scared by a creepy clown is bad enough, but when the adult Losers return to Derry in 1985, the horrors of what can scare a group of adults doesn't even bear thinking about. Muschietti conveniently set his first film in 1989 so that the sequel would line up with the more modern setting of 2016, but let's wait and see how that works.

The second part will presumably flash back to our young cast like Jaeden Lieberher and Sophia Lillis, but we expect a whole host of Hollywood A-listers will play adult versions of the Losers' Club when the story picks up 27 years later.

The younger Losers reappearing in Part 2 is the perfect way to tie the two eras together under one big top, while Muschietti revealed that it won't simply be a case of "oh, they're done now" as we cast the kids aside for big Hollywood names. Fans also shouldn't worry about them growing up before the sequel claws its way onto our screens:

"For me it's very important to keep the characters engaged emotionally. I wouldn't care so much about that. Through the magic of cinema, there are practical solutions for that."

Either way, if Muschietti is using King's novel, the 1990 miniseries, and this year's blockbuster as any form of template, it might be time to sh*t those baggy clown pants all over again when we head to cinemas for Part 2.