‘It’ Filmmakers Want Jessica Chastain for Adult-Oriented Sequel

Trying to fit Stephen King‘s entire 1,100-page novel IT into one film is a nearly impossible task, forcing director Andy Muschietti to focus on one specific timeline of the story for this year’s adaptation. While there’s no set schedule for when the second movie will begin filming, producer Barbara Mushietti already knows she wants to cast Jessica Chastain in the film, having previously worked together on Mama.

When speaking with Deadline, the producer addressed a rumor that a scene featuring Chastain had already been shot. Muschietti revealed, “Nothing happened. You know, we wanted to keep surprises for the second part, that may never happen, but God knows we really want to do it. So you know nothing happened and I mean I was going to, you know, have to…I can’t bite my tongue about this. We would love for Jess to play her. I think one of the first things that we noticed when we saw Sophia [Lillis] come into the room was, my gosh, you look like her. It’s a strange kind of connection but we will see. We will see.”

The story of IT features children who are targeted by a menacing presence in the small town of Derry, ME, who band together to battle the creature head-on. After thinking they’ve destroyed to creature, they are forced to come together 27 years later to wage war against the monster as adults.

A previous adaptation of the novel in 1990 intertwined the two timelines, telling the entire story over the course of three hours. The upcoming adaptation is over two hours long, allowing the filmmakers to take their time establishing the relationships between the characters.

The second film will jump forward in time to show these kids, the “Losers’ Club,” as adults to fight It once again. No production schedule for that sequel has been announced, but the director is quite eager to move forward.

“My priority is always the second half of IT because, whether it’s a reality or not, I have to complete this and everybody around us seems to agree,” Andy revealed. “There’s a lot of enthusiasm. In my case, it’s beyond commercial reasons. I just feel it wouldn’t be right to not give a complete story with the second half or chapter two or whatever you want to call it because a continuation gives closure to the story. I’m very excited about doing it and it’s my priority right now.”

IT lands in theaters tomorrow.