The Losers Club of 'It' Dreamcast Their Adult Counterparts, Let's Judge Them

By Genevieve Burgess | Film | September 15, 2017 |

In the interest of full disclosure: I have not seen It. I have no intention of seeing it in the theater where I can’t stop the movie turn on a light, or say “FUCK THIS SHIT!” at any point and walk away. However, I’ve heard it’s very good and I’ve been happily reading all the coverage of it because then I’ll be better prepared whenever I get up the courage to actually watch it. While skimming the dubious IMDB “trivia” for the film, I came across this bit:

“The cast of the Losers Club were asked whom they wanted to play their adult parts: Finn Wolfhard (Richie Tozier) says Bill Hader, Sophia Lillis (Beverly Marsh) says Jessica Chastain, Chosen Jacobs (Mike Hanlon) says Chadwick Boseman, Jack Dylan Grazer (Eddie Kaspbrak) says Jake Gyllenhaal, Wyatt Oleff (Stanley Uris) says Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeremy Ray Taylor (Ben Hanscom) says Chris Pratt and Jaeden Lieberher (Bill Denbrough) says Christian Bale.”

This is interesting! I knew that the structure of the movie was that it was just the Losers Club as kids, leaving the filmmakers room to adapt the second half of the story later. Given the staggering amount of money that It has made, that’s almost certainly happening. So, let’s see how well the dreamcast matches up with their childish counterparts and perhaps crush the dreams of children in the meantime. Rules are trying to stick closer to the same age overall, and you have to make a case for why you want to pick a different actor. The kids with their chosen adult counterparts are below, with my comments and preferred casting underneath each set of pictures.

Bill Hader is 39, so that’s what we’re setting as an age benchmark, and I can see that as a reasonable version of grown up Finn Wolfhard. Thumbs up!

Jessica Chastain is 40 so we’re sticking in the same ballpark age wise. I do think that she has much stronger features than Lillis, particularly her nose and cheekbones, but the coloring is right on. I think Amy Adams would be a bit closer but at 43 she’s slightly outside the range we’re working in so far. But not that far.

I feel like Jacobs reminds me more of Gaius Charles of Friday Night Lights, but he’s 34 so a little young compared to the rest of the choses. Chadwick Boseman is 40, so he’s right on the range we’re looking for. Of course, as the new Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman may be pretty busy for the next few years.

Starting to skew a bit with the ages here, as Gyllenhaal is 36. I don’t hate this, although the eyes bug me a bit. I feel like Orlando Bloom would be a better match and closer to the right age.

Gordon-Levitt is another one on the younger side for this, also 36 years old. I also feel like the face shape and eyes are off, probably because I know what JGL looked like as a kid from 3rd Rock and he looked nothing like that. There’s someone he reminds me of, but it’s the kind of actor who’s always a third tier character so I’m totally blanking on a name. You know the guy, I know you do.

Pratt is the right age and I can tell why Taylor picked him. But, as Joanna Robinson pointed out, there’s a more poetic choice available:

Jerry O'Connell should play the grown up Ben in #IT Part 2, right? Feels only fair. pic.twitter.com/5mmbyEsmed
— Joanna Robinson (@jowrotethis) September 12, 2017

At 43, Jerry O’Connell is a little outside the age range but I feel like the symmetry of it is too good to fuss about.

Christian Bale is a tricky one because he seems to delight in doing whatever (literally WHATEVER) he needs to do to embody a role, so I’m sure he COULD look like this kid if he wanted to. But I saw one adult and one adult only looking at his pictures and that’s:

Search your heart, buddy, you know it to be true.