IT: Chapter 2 Casts Isaiah Mustafa as Adult Mike

Isaiah Mustafa will play adult Mike Hanlon in the sequel IT: Chapter 2. Last year's IT movie only adapts the first half of Stephen King's original novel and focuses on the experiences of the Losers' Club as pre-teens, when they encounter the demonic entity known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård) for the first time. Chapter 2 will adapt the second half of King's source material, which picks up with the Losers 27 years after their initial battle with Pennywise, as they are called upon by Mike to return to Derry, Maine, when the monster resurfaces to begin feasting on children once again.

Warner Bros. was quick to green-light the IT sequel after its predecessor became a massive box office hit, in addition to earning great reviews from general audiences and critics alike. Production on Chapter 2 is now gearing up to get started in July, with IT director Andy Muschietti calling the shots from a script by Gary Dauberman (who also wrote the first IT movie). Now that Mustafa has officially joined the cast, that means Muschietti and his crew has found actors to play all seven members of the grown-up Losers' Club in the IT sequel.

Chosen Jacobs, who played young Mike in the first IT, has confirmed that Mustafa will play adult Mike in Chapter 2 on his Instagram account (see the screenshot below). Variety has further confirmed that the actor - best known for his role on the Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments TV series and his turn in the Old Spice commercials - is now signed on to play the role in Muschietti's sequel. The other six adult Loser actors in the film include Jessica Chastain as Beverly Marsh, James McAvoy as Bill Denbrough, James Ransone as Eddie Kaspbrak, Bill Hader as Richie Tozier, Andy Bean as Stanley Uris, and Jay Ryan as Ben Hanscom. Skarsgård will also be reprising his role as Pennywise in the sequel.

Although the first IT made some major changes to Mike and his storyline from King's original novel, Muschietti has said that Mike's role in Chapter 2 will be much closer to the part that he plays as a grown man in King's source material. In the second half of King's book, it is revealed that Mike is the only Loser to have spent the last 27 years living in Derry and that, in that time, he became a librarian so that he could do further research on the town's dark history and its connection to Pennywise. However, in order to better understand the mysterious creature, Mike takes drugs that alter his mind and end up leaving him a bit of a wreck, by the time that Chapter 2 picks up.

With Mustafa serving as the final piece to the puzzle that is Chapter 2's cast, it seems that Muschietti and his team decided to go with sturdy characters actors over big names to bring the adult Losers' Club to life in the sequel. The film certainly doesn't need huge names to sell it either, not after the first IT tapped into the pop cultural zeitgeist last year and furthered helped to usher in a renaissance of King adaptations on the big and small screen alike. With a cast that's impressive on its own and the same creatives involved behind the scenes, there's fair reason to think that Chapter 2 will be equally successful when it hits the scene next year.