User blog:AustinDR/What to Expect from It: Chapter Two



1) Maturin. In the original novel, It had a natural enemy, another cosmic being known as the Turtle. They both existed in the realm of the Macroverse. It is said that the Turtle hurled the universe out when it got sick at one point before retreating back into his shell. The Turtle became pivotal in the Loser Club's first defeat of It/Pennywise when it teaches Bill about the Ritual of Chud, a cosmological mind game where Bill -- with the help of his friends -- defeat and nearly kill It before it retreated to lick its wounds and hibernate for the next 27 years. In the Dark Tower series, the Turtle is given the name "Maturin," and is revealed as one of the chosen to protect the beams of the Dark Tower. While there were allusions to the Turtle in the first film, he is expected to play more of a role in the sequel.

2) The beginning of the book had It's awakening be started with the violent beating and death of a gay man named Adrian Mellon by a gang of homophobes. A great act of violence is what awakens It from its slumber and it takes another act of violence to return It to sleep. The 1990s miniseries did not have this scene, but it will be in the second chapter.

3) Beverly will be in a domestically abusive relationship. While shades of this was seen in the 1990 miniseries, it is expected to be more represented in the 2019 film. In the book, Tom Rogan follows Beverly to Derry, Maine, and gets brainwashed by It into kidnapping Bill's wife and he dies from shock at looking into It's Deadlights.

4) Despite looking as though he had died at the end of the first film by falling down the well -- and hitting his head against the walls for good measure -- Henry Bowers is confirmed to still play a crucial role when the Losers Club return to Derry when their vows awaken. In the book, Bowers was accused for the child murders that It committed and sentenced to life in a mental institution. It is the one to break him out so he could use him to kill the Losers. Stan, the Jewish boy, does receive the note from Mike Hanlon that It had returned, and committed suicide rather than face It again. As such, it could be expected that this would play out in the film.

5) Mike, like in the book, remains in Derry as a watchman for It's inevitable return. Here, though, he will be taking mind-altering drugs as a way of figuring out how to defeat It/Pennywise.

6) It's backstory. The book goes to great lengths to explain that It was for all intents and purposes an alien from another dimension known as the Macroverse who crash lands in the area that would eventually become Derry, Maine, and hibernated, somehow knowing that humanity would be seeded. It was responsible for many deaths and disappearances, namely of an entire pioneer community that migrated to Derry.