Muschietti’s It has a more grounded climax than King’s novel

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

In Stephen King's epic novel IT, characters discover that the way to defeat the supernatural Pennywise is to perform the Ritual of Chüd, which will allow someone to enter the Macroverse and see the monster in its true form. In the Macroverse, the novel also introduces a universe-creating turtle called Mataurin… And if you're expecting to see any of that in director Andy Muschietti's adaptation of IT that hits theatres this weekend, you might want to adjust those expectations.

Muschietti has previously admitted to Collider that he was "never too crazy about the mythology" presented in King's novel, and has said that there will be a turtle in his movie, but it's not a universe creator or even a real turtle.

It’s a Lego turtle. It’s a presence that’s there in the key moments of the story. Especially when— there’s a moment where they’re all together— well, you’ll see in the movie. I won’t spoil you.”

Speaking with Yahoo, Muschietti has given away the fact that the group of child heroes called the Losers Club will have a much more grounded final confrontation with Pennywise in his film than they did in the novel, as he is saving the transdimensional stuff for the second half of the adaptation, which will focus on the Losers Club as adults. The otherworldly aspect will only be hinted at here.

I really wanted to focus on the emotional journey of the group of kids. 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.

I also wanted to leave something for the second half, so I didn’t want to get in trouble with that — going into the Macroverse or that transdimensional stuff — and keep it grounded, from the point of view of the kids. There’s another movie to expand into that."

Leaving out the Macroverse element also allowed Muschietti to save some money, as depicting another realm can be quite expensive and would have taken up a large chunk of the budget.

Muschietti also confirmed to Yahoo that the second half of the adaptation will require the child actors from the first half to return for more scenes. We won't just be seeing the characters as adults next time.

There will be a dialogue between the two timelines, which is something that I love from the book. So it’s not just the adults, we’re going to come back to 1989."

Written by Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga, and Gary Dauberman, the first half of the IT adaptation centers on 

seven children known as The Losers Club who come face to face with life problems, bullies and a monster that takes the shape of a clown called Pennywise. 

The film stars Bill Skarsgard, Jaeden Lieberher, Finn Wolfhard, Sophia Lillis, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Owen Teague, Nicholas Hamilton, and Javier Botet.

IT, minus Mataurin and the Macroverse, reaches theatres this Friday, September 8th.