Cast
Jaeden Lieberher as Bill Denbrough:The leader of the group of kids known as the Losers Club, who vows to get revenge on the monster with the help of his friends. Bill losing his brother makes the battle against it a more personal crusade for him than any of the others. That and his stutter is what binds him to the group and transforms him into Big Bill, the leader. On the character of Bill, Muschietti stated: "Bill is like a ghost in his own home: nobody sees him because his parents can't get over Georgie's death." Ty Simpkins was considered for the role in Cary Joji Fukunaga's production. On the description of his character, Lieberher remarked of Bill that: "He's very strong and never backs down. He does what he thinks is right and would do anything for the people that he loves." Lieberher spoke of influences such as YouTube and Colin Firth's performance in The King's Speech (2010) in assisting him to develop Bill's stutter, while researching and getting used to stuttering on certain words, certain syllables, certain letters and sounds.
Bill Skarsgård as It / Pennywise The Dancing Clown:An ancient, trans-dimensional evil that awakens every twenty-seven years. Will Poulter was previously cast in the role but was forced to drop out due to scheduling conflicts, with Poulter stating, "I was [attached] when Mr. Fukunaga was directing, but the circumstances at New Line are such that a new director's attached now." Poulter continued, "I think, with all due respect to him of course, I was selected by Cary and subscribed to Cary's vision for the movie, and so I haven't had a chance to connect with that [new] director." Mark Rylance, Ben Mendelsohn, Kirk Acevedo, Hugo Weaving, Jenny Slate, and Tilda Swinton were considered for the role, with Mendelsohn passing on the project, as New Line wanted him to take a sizable pay cut. On June 3, 2016, The Independent officially reported, after final negotiations took place, that Muschietti had chosen Skarsgård to portray the character. On portraying Pennywise, Skarsgård stated, "It's such an extreme character. Inhumane, It's beyond even a sociopath, because he's not even human. He's not even a clown. I'm playing just one of the beings It creates." Skarsgård described the character further, saying, "It truly enjoys the shape of the clown Pennywise, and enjoys the game and the hunt." He also commented, "What's funny to this evil entity might not be funny to everyone else. But he thinks it's funny." On Pennywise's design, Skarsgård stated, "It's important that we do something fresh and original for this one. It's purposely not going toward that weird, greasy look." He also commented on being compared to Tim Curry, stating that, "Curry's performance was truly great, but it's important for me to do something different because of that. I'll never be able to make a Tim Curry performance as good as Tim Curry." Skarsgård also elaborated on his age, stating, "There's a childishness to the character, because he's so closely linked to the kids. The clown is the manifestation of children's imaginations, so there's something child-like about that." Producer Dan Lin spoke of Skarsgård's physical attributes: "His build is really interesting. He's really tall and lanky, and feels a little clown like in his movement. When he came in — we had a lot of different actors read, and when he came in he had a different spin on the character that got us really excited." Lin concluded by comparing the character with that of Heath Ledger's Joker, "You've had [Ledger] doing almost a clown joker, you've seen obviously Tim Curry as a clown. We wanted someone who created a Pennywise character that would stand on its own and Bill came in and created this character that frankly freaked us out." Muschietti spoke of Skarsgård's Pennywise as one not to lurk in the shadows, to which he remarked, "Pennywise shows up, he's front and center, and he does his show. He has an act. So it's weird all the time, and every little thing implies a further threat." Muschietti also spoke of wanting to make the sense of dread that grows in Derry part of the dread of Pennywise, to which he stated, "He's not just a character that can shape-shift, his influence is all around. The anticipation of him is almost scarier than the actual Pennywise scares." On selecting Skarsgård to portray Pennywise, Muschietti wanted to stay true to the essence of the character, and Skarsgård caught his attention, "The character has a childish and sweet demeanor, but there's something very off about him. Skarsgård has that balance in him. He can be sweet and cute, but he can be pretty disturbing." Producer Barbara Muschietti referred to Skarsgård's Pennywise as "the ancestral clown", shunning 21st century modern clown characteristics and instead hearkening back to 18th century aesthetics with 'upgrades'."
Jeremy Ray Taylor as Ben Hanscom:A shy, overweight boy with a crush on Beverly, who relays the incidents of Derry's past to his friends. On the character of Ben, Muschietti spoke of him knowing a situation of despair, on top of the terror of It and the fear of heights, and added, "Ben is bullied at school."
Sophia Lillis as Beverly Marsh:A flame-haired tomboy who fends off an abusive father at home, while forming a strong bond with Ben. Beverly's Losership wasn't defined by the fact she was abused but by her poverty. On the character of Marsh, Muschietti stated, "Beverly's case is of course the worst, because it's about sexual abuse on a minor." In an interview with Rolling Stone, Lillis spoke of Muschietti not wanting herself and her co-stars to spend too much time with Skarsgård: "We actually weren't allowed to see him until our scenes, because we wanted the horror to be real." On the character of Beverly, Lillis described her as: "Kind of a tough person. She hides herself. She tries to hide her emotions and hide her feelings. She distances herself from everyone but once she has this friend group she doesn't want to let it go because this is the only friend group that she has and so she's a very strong character." Working with Muschietti, Lillis and he developed Beverly as rebelling against her father, with Lillis having independence with the character, while also stating, "We definitely talked about her mother, who was never there — she wasn't even in the movie, but we talked about background for the character." Lillis spoke of how Beverly is someone she aspires to be, relating to her strength, her way of facing her fears: "When I read about her, I kind of got the sense that she was someone I could definitely look up to. I would be happy if I had any similarity to her." On her connection with her fellow co-stars she noted that the closeness of the friendships formed allowed Lillis connect with her own character: "I relate to Beverly – the way she deals with her emotions, and the way she was around the Losers. I felt that way around the actual actors."
Finn Wolfhard as Richie Tozier:The bespectacled best friend of Bill, whose loud mouth and foul language often get him into trouble. Wolfhard shared the first image of the Losers Club on his Instagram account, with the photo captioned as "The Losers Club take Toronto", showing the cast of actors who will be playing the protagonists of the piece. He auditioned for the part of Richie for Fukunaga's It in 2015, before Fukunaga left, with Wolfhard being the only actor cast in both Muschietti and Fukanaga's version. On the character of Richie, Muschietti stated, "We don't know much about Richie's personality, because he's the big mouth of the group. But we suppose he's also neglected at home, and he's the clown of the band because he needs attention." Of his character's changes from the novel to the film, Wolfhard stated, "Richie's always been the same. There's some similarities to the book and there's other stuff they added because some of the stuff that we said in this movie you can't say in the '50s." Wolfhard felt that there wasn't much research required in approaching Richie: " You just have to read the character breakdown and it helps a lot to see the difference between the characters in the book, and the miniseries, as well to get a raw take on it." In an interview with GQ, Wolfhard spoke of how all of The Losers bonded on set, and that the friendship has carried over: "That friendship is for real, for sure. Every time I'm in L.A., I stay with Wyatt, who plays Stanley. We hang out all the time in L.A. and wherever they are."
Chosen Jacobs as Mike Hanlon:A sweet, softly-spoken black boy living on the outskirts of Derry on his Grandfather's farm. When describing Mike, Jacobs stated that although Mike is more independent in characterization, he is still an eighties character, while elaborating by stating: "I mean he doesn't have any friends growing up, isolated, black, in the eighties, in a primarily Caucasian environment, so I think he's just got a sweetness about him." On the characterization of Mike, Jacobs said: "Finding friends that accept him for who he is means a lot to him. So he would never betray that friendship, and I feel like I'm kind of that way or at least I try to be." Jacobs also mentioned: "I always say this because it's so true, Mike is the best friend anyone could ask for, just because he's been so isolated and he really appreciates friendships." while stating that he was excited to portray Mike as: "I loved the depth of Mike, because he's just kind of a sweet, backbone type of guy. He's the guy you bring back to moms. I appreciated being able to play that character." Jacobs felt that portraying Mike wasn't difficult as he just had to channel the best aspects of himself, while suggesting they have many similarities and some differences. He brought up the element of Mike being one of the only African-Americans in Derry, while stating that he and the other Losers all have similar isolationism: "He grew up the outsider because of racial tension, which separated him that makes him really appreciate when someone says, 'Hey, I like you for who you are.'" Jacobs highlighted the bond Mike shares with his Losers' Club friends while also stating: "Pennywise is just a symbol for all the hard things that happen in life that bring people together. Of course we changed. We became more mature. Some people break out of their shells, some people retract into themselves because it's scary. This horror film is more than just horror. It's a coming-of-age movie. On the experience of shooting Muschietti's film, Jacobs spoke of it as "my favorite summer of my 16 long years on earth"
Jack Dylan Grazer as Eddie Kaspbrak:A sickly boy who only feels truly well when he is with his friends. The off-screen friendships began to influence the onscreen friendships, with Grazer recalling a scene where they were able to draw on their genuine feelings for one another for a particularly emotional scene: We're lifelong friends now in reality and in the movie. We're shooting a scene now where Stanley or Wyatt is breaking down and we're all huddling around him crying and it's an amazing powerful scene. Because of the friendships, it's real." He highlighted his enjoyment of the intense scenes he had with Skarsgård, stating: "I remember one scene after he was done choking me and stuff, he goes, Jack, are you okay? And I was like, 'Yeah! That was so much fun! I love what you're doing with the character, like let's do that again." On his experiences with Muschietti, Grazer mentioned his usage of storyboards for scenes while also stating But to break us into character – I actually felt like I was pretty close to Eddie – we'd stick to our guns about a lot of things, we really didn't back down on our opinions." Grazer spoke of his appreciation of films such as Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) and Batman (1989) that gave him "insight on how he could improvise or reuse those things as references to the time period."
Wyatt Oleff as Stanley Uris:The pragmatic son of a rabbi, whose bar mitzvah studies are haunted by a ghoulish woman from a painting. Muschietti made Stanley the son of a rabbi, which is a change from the novel, to add a bit of that sense of responsibility, while to show oppression from his father, with the theme of oppression being a recurring force in the story of the adults of Derry. Oleff recalled his first scene shot being a speech at his bar mitzvah: "I had a ton of lines to memorize and they even added a whole new paragraph while we were filming. I was like, Oh boy. After a while it got a lot easier to say over and over gain [sic] it was, like, 10 hours filming that scene." On the character of Stanley, Oleff spoke by stating: "Stanley, in the group is the last one to believe that It is actually real because he just doesn't want to. It doesn't fit within his reality until something happens. He relates to everyone, but he's the one who tries to organize everything, but he can't. It's falling apart for him and his friends come to support him." While Oleff stated Stanley as having OCD remarked: "He tries to lay everything out in his own mind pattern kinda thing. And Pennywise comes along and just shatters everything. He's definitely the most scared." Stanley suffers from an injury sustained at the end of Muschietti's It, to which Oleff remarks "He's been scarred, I guess you can say but Stanley is scarred mentally and physically by these marks. They're permanent, so every time he would look in the mirror he'd see it and be reminded about what happened." Oleff spoke of his research into the 1980s in which his parents helped him as "They told me a lot about the '80s and what music. I've been listening to a lot of '80s music recently. That's helped me get into character. I made a playlist of what I think Stanley would listen to in the '80s." Oleff also spoke of the fellowship between his co-stars and himself, where he states "I think that translates on screen. You could see the friendship we have on and off-screen. We've been together for so long that you can see our connection, in our characters, but also it's us connecting as humans and friends." Relating to sensitivity in emotions, Oleff compared himself to Stanley when stating: "Stanley tries to hide his emotions and sometimes I accidentally do that as well. So I can definitely relate to him in that way. One way to describe Stanley is like the voice of reason that no one listens to and that's also me in real life."
Nicholas Hamilton as Henry Bowers:A young sociopath who leads the Bowers Gang, and terrorizes the Losers' Club. On the character of Bowers, Hamilton stated: "You see a lot of characters in movies who are just bullies and just there to be the antagonist and mess with the main character. With Bowers, he has so many different layers to him, with his father being the way he is and him having to live up to that." Hamilton prepared for the role by studying Jarred Blancard's portrayal of the character in It (1990), and in Hamilton's words: "watched all the bits of my original character" for research. Blancard spoke to Hamilton, with Blancard giving him advice on how to handle some of the "psychopathic-ness" and general meanness of Bowers. Hamilton added, through the character of Bowers, that "There's stuff that I have to do that is really creepy and the opportunity to help share my psychotic side has been really fun." Additionally Hamilton spoke of a scene shared with Ray Taylor, wherein he had to "terrorize the hell out of him and get right in his face." Hamilton highlighted the generic portrayal bullying and the bully in "in any movie", to which he stated: "Bowers and his gang are just so much different. There's a story, there's layers, he's vulnerable at times, he's not just the dick, so I really like that. There's definitely stuff to play around with."
Jackson Robert Scott as Georgie Denbrough: The innocent, energetic 7-year-old brother of Bill Denbrough, whose disappearance at the hands of Pennywise results in the next summer's events.
Owen Teague as Patrick Hockstetter, a psychopath who keeps a refrigerator full of animals that he has killed;
Logan Thompson as Victor "Vic" Criss, the inseparable friend of Henry Bowers;
Jake Sim as Reginald "Belch" Huggins, the biggest, strongest and clumsiest member of the Bowers Gang;
Javier Botet as The Leper, a rotting homeless man that encounters Eddie Kaspbrak under the porch of the house on 29 Neibolt Street;
Tatum Lee as Judith, one of It's horrifying creations;
Steven Williams as Leroy Hanlon, the grandfather of Mike Hanlon who runs a nearby abattoir;
Stephen Bogaert as Alvin Marsh, the abusive father of Beverly Marsh;
Geoffrey Pounsett as Zack Denbrough, the father of Bill and George Denbrough;
Pip Dwyer as Sharon Denbrough, the caring and loving mother of Bill and George Denbrough;
Ari Cohen as Rabbi Uris, Stanley Uris's father and mentor in the Jewish religion;
Stuart Hughes as Oscar "Butch" Bowers, a racist and abusive officer of the Derry Police Department who is the father of Henry Bowers. Butch has a strong dislike towards the Hanlon family, especially Leroy;
Megan Charpentier as Greta Bowie, a snobby and stuck-up student in Mrs. Douglas's class and a classmate of the Losers Club at Derry Middle School, who lives in the richer parts of Derry.
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