'It' Sequel Release Date Pits Pennywise Against The Losers' Club In 2019

Andy Muschietti's creepy film adaptation of Stephen King's It has become a box office phenomenon, earning the highest opening weekend ever for a horror film while also earning the biggest advance night opening for any R-rated movie and the biggest opening gross for any Stephen King adaptation. To put it simple, It's big. And it was only a matter of time until the proposed sequel, It: Chapter 2, received an official release date. And now it has one, set for 2019. Find out the It sequel release date below.

New Line and Warner Bros. have just announced (via THR) that the It sequel will hit theaters on September 6, 2019. Gary Dauberman, who co-wrote the first film, is close to closing a deal to pen the sequel, and director Andy Muschietti is also expected to return. Muschietti has already spoken a bit about what he hopes to achieve with the sequel, including focusing on the more out-there "transdimensional" elements that pop-up in King's book:

"I really wanted to focus on the emotional journey of the group of kids [in the first film]. Getting in to that other dimension — the other side — was something that we could introduce in the second part. In the book the perspective of the writing... is always with the Losers, so everything they know about Pennywise is very speculative and shrouded in absurdity, so I wanted to respect that mystery feeling of not knowing what's on the other side."

Producer Barbara Muschietti added:

"We're not doing [both stories] for a simple reason – we didn't think it was necessary to intertwine them. The book is our bible, for sure, but we thought it would be more interesting to respect the proper chronology, and also, it's such a massive book. This, I have to say, we inherited [the film from previous director Cary Fukunaga] and we could have changed it, but we decided not to, to stick to the kids, because I think it [lets you] really understand the characters in the first part of the movie, rather than spending half of the movie 27 years later."

It: Chapter 2 will pick-up 27 years after the first film, and find the members of the Losers' Club all grown-up and scattered away from their cursed hometown of Derry, Maine. But when Pennywise the Clown (Bill Skarsgard) wakes from his hibernation and begins killing again, the Losers find themselves called home to defeat Pennywise once and for all.

This sequel approach is similar to how the 1990 miniseries handled King's massive tome of terror, having one part focus on the Losers as kids while the other finds them as adults. Now we wait and see what actors start being thrown around to play the Losers as adults. Given how successful It has been and how much buzz there will be for the sequel, don't surprised if some pretty big names become attached. Here's everything we know about the sequel so far.