The 'IT' Sequel Has a Release Date

IT, the new horror blockbuster that enraged hardworking clowns everywhere and gave the red balloon its biggest PR bump since that old French movie, officially has a sequel release date—but you're going to have to wait a little while before you can watch Pennywise terrorize Derry again.

Warner Bros. announced Tuesday that the IT sequel will float into theaters on September 6, 2019, just in time for Labor Day weekend, according to the Hollywood Reporter. No cast has been announced for the upcoming movie yet, but the child actors are already making guesses about who should play their characters' grown-up versions.

The follow-up film will tell the story of the Losers Club returning to their hometown of Derry, Maine, as adults to do battle with Pennywise the Dancing Clown again. Stephen King's original 1986 novel tells both the children and adult stories in tandem, weaving them together. The Tim Curry IT miniseries followed suit, but the studio behind this remake decided to split the story into two films—a choice that has already paid off.

IT has been a box office behemoth, breaking records for R-rated film openings, beating The Exorcist as the highest-grossing domestic horror film of all time. The movie has made nearly half a billion dollars in ticket sales worldwide, and that number is still steadily climbing.

The latest IT film shied away from some the more bizarre elements of King's book—including that whole child gang bang mess—but it looks like Muschietti plans to embrace some of the novel's more "transdimensional" ideas for the sequel. See, Pennywise the Clown is actually this evil entity who feeds on emotions and was birthed in some mysterious dimension called the Macroverse. There's also a giant turtle creature in the Macroverse named Maturin, who helps the Losers Club defeat Pennywise once and for all during some kind of psychic battle called the Ritual of Chüd, and—uhh, yeah, shit is going to get weird in part two.

"I really wanted to focus on the emotional journey of the group of kids [in the first movie]," Muschietti told Slashfilm earlier this month. "Getting in to that other dimension—the other side—was something that we could introduce in the second part."

IT: Chapter Two is set to open September 6, 2019.