The hottest word on the street at the moment is that Molly’s Game Actress, Jessica Chastain is in early talks with New Line to star in the follow-up to their IT reboot.
Chastain would take the role as an adult Beverly, the role was played by Sophia Lillis in the 2017 outing. Bill Skarsgard is also expected to return as Pennywise. Andy Muschietti will return to the director’s chair on the sequel with Gary Dauberman penning the script.
Having worked with IT helmer Muschietti on Mama, he had previously made it clear in an interview with Variety that Chastain would be his top choice to take over the role as an adult Beverly.
“Jessy is an amazing actress and very good friend and I would love her to play Beverly,” he said, “she loves the movie and it feels like the planets are aligned in that sense, but we still have to make that happen. There are a lot of ideas for the rest of the cast that I’m playing with, but it’s a bit too premature to say those names right now.”
Chapter Two is set to follow the last half of Stephen King’s novel when the characters return to their hometown years later as adults to face Pennywise once again. Chastain would be the first big star attached to the sequel, though the Muschiettis have said that they would hope to bring back the original young stars for flashback scenes.
Chastain was last seen in Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut Molly’s Game alongside Idris Elba, the role saw the star nominated for a Golden Globe. Next up will be her outing in X-Men: Dark Phoenix which is slated for a November 2nd 2018 release.
Production is due to commence in the summer with a September 6th, 2019 release date scheduled.
