As soon as It premiered last year, the internet began fantasy casting Jessica Chastain in the sequel as the adult Beverly. If you’re not aware, It is a story in two parts, the first in the past—the 1950s in the TV miniseries, the 1980s in the movie—and the second in the present, with the characters now grown adults. Which means the It sequel, slated for 2019, has to recast all the roles, except Pennywise, as adults, and since Sophia Lillis, who plays Kid Beverly in the first movie, is a redhead, everyone screamed JESSICA CHASTAIN in unison to play Adult Beverly in the sequel. Because she has red hair, too? It’s certainly not because Jessica Chastain in any way resembles Sophia Lillis. (If we’re sticking to redheads and not just any actress who could dye her hair, Amy Adams bears a stronger resemblance.)
The internet is getting its wish, though, as Jessica Chastain is in (early) talks to star as Adult Beverly in the It sequel. Apparently Chastain and It director Andy Muschietti and producer Barbara Muschietti (a brother-sister duo) are friends in real life (Chastain starred in Muschietti’s previous film, Mama), so there’s an air of inevitability to all this. It’s not the most imaginative casting, and it’s generally a bad idea to give the internet what it wants, but Chastain is a good actress and Adult Beverly is a character with a lot of baggage so assuming the deal goes through, this will be fine. I guess we should now fantasy-cast the other adult versions of the Losers? I have no strong opinions on this. The best part of It is the kid part, but like most Stephen King stories, It is longer than it needs to be, so we’re getting a sequel. I don’t really care about an It sequel, but maybe they can come up with something better for It’s final form than that dumb spider from the miniseries.
