Terrifying 'IT: Chapter 2' first trailer floats online

The first trailer for the inevitably pant-soiling sequel to 2017’s IT, IT: Chapter 2, has landed online, and it’s absolutely terrifying. Also, just a little bit freaky. You can watch it below.

We’ve also had a new poster, because as it turns out, balloons are an essential element of this franchise, who knew?

The trailer introduces us to the adult members of ‘The Losers Club,’ with the sequel following the grown-up adventures of the kids in the first movie. From the looks of this first glimpse, Jessica Chastain’s Beverly Marsh will have a particularly hard time of it – most of the trailer is a VERY Shining-esque sequence involving her character.

But the star of the show is floating fiend Pennywise the clown, and Bill Skarsgård has been updating EW about the evil entity’s current state of mind.

Read more: James McAvoy posts cheesy photo to mark first day of ‘It: Chapter Two’

“He’s been doing this forever really, so he doesn’t change in the sense that you would look differently. He looks however he wants to look for any particular prey at the time, but I do think there’s a change,” the actor says.

Read more: ‘It: Chapter Two’ features ‘bloodiest scene in movie history’

“The arc of the first movie is that he, for the first time, experiences fear himself,” Skarsgård explains. “His last line — ‘Fear…’ — is him experiencing it for the first time, and he’s sort of shocked and perplexed and surprised. Like, what is this?”

“He’s inflicted fear on his prey, and he’s very focused on fear, but he’s never experienced it himself,” Skarsgård says. “Now he’s experienced something that he has been inflicting on others and … there’s a shift leading into the second movie.”

“It fuels hatred and anger towards the kids, who will be adults in this one, so I think there might be an even more vicious Pennywise,” Skarsgård teases. “He’s really going after it.”

Going on the strength of this first trailer, we’re a little nervous to see just what a ‘more vicious Pennywise’ looks like…

IT: Chapter 2 lands in UK cinemas on September 6.