'It Chapter 2' Trailer Leaves Room for a Dark Deviation From the King Novel

Should we be worried about Stanley Uris? The official trailer for It Chapter Two premiered on Thursday at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, teasing the return of the Losers Club. But while most of the adult Losers were present and accounted for, ready to kick serious Pennywise ass upon returning home to Derry, I couldn’t help but notice one Loser was missing: Stanley.

Just to jog your memory: in It, Stanley (played by Wyatt Oleff) was the son of Rabbi Uris and one of the conservative Losers Club members. Not a risk-taker by nature and not at all prepared for a demonic clown to attack him and his friends, Stanley functioned mostly as back-up to group heroes Bill (Jaeden Martell), Beverly (Sophia Lillis), and Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor). He, along with the other members of the Losers Club, survives the ordeal of It and, as we’re led to believe, goes on to have a much more sane, normal childhood.

So why the heck is Stanley (confirmed on IMDb to be played as an adult by Here and Now’s Andy Bean) noticeably absent from the It Chapter Two trailer? He should be alive and at least willing to meet up with his childhood friends for dinner.

This is where I start to wonder just how much liberty It Chapter Two director Andy Muschietti took with Stephen King’s It, the novel on which this movie is based. In the book, Stanley does grow up and gets married. He and his wife have a good marriage, making Stan pretty content with his lot in life. When Mike (played in the film by Isaiah Mustafa) calls him to tell him Pennywise has returned to Derry and the Losers need to band together to fight him, Stan is too afraid. Instead, his wife discovers he has died by suicide in the bathtub.

If we knew It Chapter Two was going to faithfully adapt the second part of King’s It, then we’d already have our explanation for Stanley’s absence. But it gives me pause when I read something like the Entertainment Weekly interview with the adult actors playing the Chapter Two Losers and find clues that there may be deviations from the original text.

A big clue: a majority of the actors seem cagey in discussing where there characters are at in life when It Chapter Two begins. In the interview, Mustafa confirms that Mike has remained in Derry and works as the town librarian. Bill (James McAvoy) has gone on to be a Hollywood screenwriter — both outcomes basically identical to the book.

And then there’s Bill Hader, who plays Richie Tozier, sharing this remark with EW when asked what the other Losers are up to as adults: “It’s not the same as the book. But it’ll be a real mindblower.”

If Richie’s adult life is different from the books, then surely Stanley’s is, too, which means there could be a different (but just as dark) outcome for him revealed in the movie. It’s possible Stanley’s fate will be tied to Pennywise’s ability to mess with memory, as implied in the SDCC 2019 trailer (in the movies, there’s no precedent for the town casting some kind of spell to forget things on the townsfolk).

If the adult Losers eventually recall what happened to them as kids upon returning to Derry, then there’s every possibility what happened to Stanley will also be revealed. 

Pennywise may have gotten to Stanley somehow, either as a child or in the intervening years between It and It Chapter Two. It’s entirely possible Chapter Two is preparing to introduce Stanley in a more gruesome way than we could have imagined. He says in the trailer he’s been waiting for the Losers for 27 years, hungering for them.

Is it possible that adult Stanley is Pennywise’s first victim, whetting his appetite for the Losers even more? 

All I’m saying is, we should be worried for Stanley. With his story updated from King’s original version and a Pennywise hellbent on taking down the Losers, Stanley could be a victim of or the first pawn the demon clown uses to take the other members down.

It Chapter Two arrives in theaters on September 6, 2019.