Why IT Chapter Two 'Definitely Merits' A Director's Cut, According To The Director

Jessica Chastain in IT Chapter 2

It Chapter Two already has an epic runtime as the movie is apparently just short of three hours long. However, it turns out that, after the movie leaves theaters, we could get even more of the second half of the story of IT, as producer Barbara Muschietti has basically already confirmed that a Director's Cut of the film will come out, because there is quite simply too much good stuff in the movie for people to not see.

You'd think that with a movie that's two hours and forty-five minutes long, the entire point of doing so would be to get all the scenes you want, even if you don't strictly need them, into the film. However, Barbara Muschietti tells Digital Spy that an even longer version will come out eventually, because the additional content available warrants such a decision. According ot Muschietti...

We will put out a director's cut because this time it definitely merits it. We have some amazing scenes that didn't make it into the movie. You have to make choices sometimes and some things cannot be in this theatrical release but are definitely worthy of people seeing them at a later date.

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It seems that director Andy Muschietti's original cut of the movie was four hours long, and he knows that releasing such a movie theatrically simply won't work. That's simply a long time to ask audiences to sit still. He then edited the movie down to the just short of three hour runtime, but it appears the plan is to put some or all of the cut material back for a future Blu-ray release.

If It Chapter Two is as successful with both audiences and critics as the first film was, there are certainly going to be some people who go running out to not only see the sequel,, but pick up that Director's Cut as soon as it comes out.

It's honestly not all that shocking that there is significant content that has been cut from the movie. Stephen King's original novel is itself quite massive and if the plan was to adapt all of the major sequences that fans love to be terrified of, then the movie could easily get out to four hours long.

For comparison, the first movie came in at 135 minutes long, so just barely over two hours, which is pretty standard for a temtpole movie of its stature these days.But arguably the segment of the story where are main characters are adults is the more important half of the story.

On the plus side, Avengers: Endgame had no issues with its runtime,and that film was a quarter of an hour longer than IT Chapter 2 will be, and when you watch the Director's Cut, at least you'll be able to pause the movie to get more snacks or use the toilet.

If you're at all worried that the necessary edits cut your favorite part of the movie, it seems that probably isn't likely. Muschietti promises that all the super scary bits made the theatrical cut.

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.

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