It Chapter Two Scenes We Never Got To See

It Chapter Two is a massive film, a sprawling horror epic that runs nearly three hours and depicts the journey of half a dozen main characters as they attempt to fight an unspeakable evil that threatens to consume them all. The sheer scope of the movie made it a massive undertaking even after the other half of Stephen King's beloved novel was adapted for It back in 2017. But even when the two movies are taken together, they can't quite tell the whole story. King's novel is so massive, so filled with moments both big and small, that director Andy Muschietti and company simply had to cut some things. 

Thanks to interviews with Muschietti and his creative team, we already know that some deleted scenes from Chapter Two are out there somewhere. There are also numerous key moments from King's original novel that the film just couldn't make the space to adapt. With all of this in mind, let's examine some intriguing It Chapter Two scenes that we didn't get to see.

It is a very long novel, even when you're approaching it with the idea of turning the story into two separate films. King's book has the luxury of taking its time with the characters, sometimes even meandering a bit to allow us to get to know them and the world in which they exist, and that means while some things were left out of the films entirely, others were heavily abbreviated for the sake of moving along with the plot. 

This is particularly true of the way the adult members of the Losers' Club are introduced. As in King's novel, we meet them in their adult forms as they each receive a phone call from Mike Hanlon, but we don't see much of what they do in the immediate aftermath, because the film just needs to get them to Derry quickly. 

In the book, though, King spends a whole chapter with each member of the Club, shedding a little more light on how they each cope with the trauma of the phone call. This is particularly memorable in the case of Ben Hanscom, who chooses to handle it by heading to a local bar, asking the bartender to fill a beer stein with whiskey, and then squeezing lemon juice into his nostrils to shock his body into taking more alcohol. It's an unforgettable scene, but the film just didn't have room for it.

In the film, Bill Denbrough's wife Audra Phillips only appears in the scene where Bill gets the phone call summoning him back to Derry, but in the novel, she has a more expanded role. As in the film, Audra is an actress who sometimes works on film adaptations of Bill's stories, but in the book, she's also drawn to Derry as she becomes increasingly fearful over what might happen to her husband. This leads to a confrontation with Beverly's husband, Tom Rogan, who abducts her and takes her down into It's lair. 

When It reveals its true form, the "deadlights," Tom dies on the spot, and Audra falls into a catatonic state. She survives the final battle with It, but she remains comatose until Bill can revive her by putting her on the back of his childhood bike, Silver, and riding free through the streets to recapture some of the joy of his youth. Bill and Audra kiss and then move on with their lives. It's a satisfying subplot, but it's one that the film didn't seem to have space for.

In It Chapter Two, both Bill Denbrough and Beverly Marsh are revealed to be married, but their respective spouses only get one scene. In the book, the spouses are used as more direct plot devices, particularly Tom Rogan, Beverly's husband who repeats the cycle of abuse she endured with her father years earlier. 

In the film, we see Tom get violent with Beverly when she announces she has to go to Derry. Then she fights him off, and he's out of the picture for the rest of the film. In King's novel, though, Tom's abusive obsession carries him much further, as he plans to travel to Derry himself so he can punish and ultimately kill Beverly, as well as Bill, in a jealous rage. This leads to It latching on to Tom's violent persona, much as It did with Henry Bowers, and using him to kidnap Bill's wife and bring her into It's lair as a lure for the Losers' Club. That's the end of the line for Tom, as he dies after seeing It's "deadlights." 

Tom's violent subplot was probably just one side-villain too many for the film, so his expanded role wasn't included.

One of the keys to It as both a novel and a film adaptation is the sense that we can always learn more about "It," but we can't learn everything. The creature is just too ancient, too strange, and too terrifying for us to ever fully penetrate its origins. King's novel digs a little deeper into the entity's backstory than the films do, but Chapter Two still shows us certain things, like the meteor carrying It crashing into Earth. We even get a tease of Pennywise's early circus days. 

According to director Andy Muschietti, though, we almost got a little more in the form of a flashback that would've taken the film about 400 years into the past. "There's a scene that we shot that's in the 1600s," he told Consequence of Sound. "I decided not to put it in the film because it was a little confusing. You know, the problem is that people sometimes want to know a little more, but if you give them too much, then they're disappointed. It's like a magic trick in a way."

In both the book and the film, Mike Hanlon is the driving force that brings the adult Losers' Club back to Derry. He's the one who stays behind, the one who does the research, and in the film, the one who discovers all the finer details of the Ritual of Chud and how to carry it out. Because of this, while the other Losers get to spend a lot of solo time out in Derry, we see more of Mike when he's teamed up with other characters, and therefore, his flashbacks to the past aren't quite as substantive. 

That wasn't always the case, though. According to cinematographer Checco Varese, a deleted scene from Chapter Two features Mike returning to the site of the house fire that killed his parents. "Yeah, we shot [a flashback], and it's super beautiful," Varese said, before adding, "There is a little hint in the movie right now when there's a little baby Mike looking at some wall on fire. But that's a very brief moment." Varese added that little bit would've turned "into a complex scene," but sadly, it just didn't make the cut. 

In It Chapter Two, the members of the Losers' Club head out to explore Derry as adults in the hopes of finding a token of their memories to use in the Ritual of Chud. In the book, the Ritual is a bit less concrete than that, and they're exploring the town again simply to reconnect with their own memories and understand why they came back. This rediscovery takes similar form in both the book and the film, but certain scenes are either heavily altered or left out entirely. 

One of the most memorable moments from the novel that didn't make it to the film features Ben Hanscom exploring not Derry High School, but the library where he spent so much time as a child. While there, he meets Pennywise costumed as Dracula, with a mouthful of razor blades that cut chunks of It's own flesh as the creature talks. That's a horrifying image, and it also leads Ben to learn what exactly happened to their absent friend, Stanley Uris, who slit his wrists after getting the phone call from Mike.

In both the book and the film, Pennywise's scheming against the Losers' Club includes drafting the bully Henry Bowers back into It's service and helping Henry to escape the asylum where he's been confined for nearly 30 years. Henry returns to Derry and launches his own violent assault on the Losers' Club, and in the film, he manages to stab Eddie Kaspbrak through the cheek and then attack Mike Hanlon in the library. 

In the novel, Henry's attack is a little more successful, as he's able to injure Mike enough to put him in the hospital and keep him out of the Ritual of Chud. This gets even more complicated in the novel's climax, as Mike is attacked in his hospital bed by a nurse possessed by It, and the other Losers must use their combined wills to send him strength to fend off his attacker. While it's nice to have the Club all together for the Ritual in the film, it's a shame that we don't get to see Mike's solo struggle during the climax. 

In the novel, a version of the Ritual of Chud happens twice, and both times, it's a metaphysical battle led by Bill Denbrough. When Bill does the Ritual as a child, he has a vision of a turtle who gives him a little advice during his spiritual journey. The turtle is named Maturin, and he's an important part of the King cosmology that was, unfortunately, left out of It Chapter One save for an Easter egg or two. As it turns out, though, there was almost a scene in Chapter Two that featured the legendary turtle. 

"When you see [James] McAvoy confronting his fear in the flooded basement," Andy Muschietti explained to Consequence of Sound, "and he kills the notion of guilt by killing himself as a kid, he jumps back in the water. He's lost, there is no way out, and suddenly, the eyes of Pennywise — Pennywise Bill, the kid — come out of the dark. But it's not Pennywise, it's the turtle that is swimming by him. And he views the turtle, and he's sort of fascinated, like, 'What is this thing?', and very soon after, the kids are swimming after it. So, McAvoy follows them toward the light, and he emerges back in the cavern."

In other words, it would've been a pretty weird scene, but hey, this is a movie about a demon clown, so strange stuff comes with the territory.

The final confrontation between the Losers' Club and It in Chapter Two is a complicated, multi-layered affair, and it features the creature morphing into a twisted version of the spider-form that Stephen King describes in the novel. But there's one aspect of that battle that was left out of the film entirely, either for the sake of brevity, simplicity, or both. 

In the novel, the battle with It is prolonged and difficult, and as the Losers managed to drive It back deeper into its lair, they make a horrifying discovery — a trail of black eggs the size of ostrich eggs. Yeah, It is giving birth to demonic offspring. So the Losers immediately decide the eggs must be destroyed, and that task falls to Ben Hanscom, who crushes the eggs and then chases after the rat-sized spider creatures that crawl out of each one. It's a horrifying scene in the novel that adds an extra layer of wild violence to the final battle, but it does seem to function as more of a side quest than anything else.

In It Chapter Two, the Losers are able to defeat It by making it assume the shape of something small and weak, then crushing its heart. With this process complete, they must then race out of It's lair as it collapses around them, and after escaping, they discover the house on Neibolt Street has been destroyed along with It. 

Stephen King's novel takes a similar approach in that it also alters the physical landscape of Derry in tandem with It's destruction, but in the book, things are a way more apocalyptic. Because It's presence and malevolence is woven so deeply into the fabric of the town, It's death is matched by an enormous storm that blows through Derry while the Losers' Club engage the entity in battle. By the time the fight is over and It is defeated, the Losers discover that much of Derry's downtown has collapsed, and Mike theorizes that this means the town will die along with It. It's the same concept as the film, but here, things are on a much bigger scale.