How much horror is too much horror? As It: Welcome to Derry continues to deepen the mythology of Stephen King’s haunted Maine town on HBO, the franchise’s creators are also revisiting legacy material from the IT films. Few modern horror franchises have reshaped pop culture the way IT did. Now, as Welcome to Derry expands that mythology on the small screen, the conversation is shifting behind the scenes.

But what if the terror of Derry was never meant to end where the credits rolled?

Well, sometimes the ideas are born years before they are implemented. Director Andy Muschietti has long expressed his interest in an extended cut of both IT and IT: CHAPTER 2. A movie that would combine the two films into one continuous experience, with deleted scenes. And he expressed that wish again during a recent Ask-Me-Anything session on Reddit.

“Still a big dream of mine. Since we’ve been involved heavily in this show we hadn’t had time. Crossing fingers,” he told fans.

Muschietti described the idea as a creative aspiration rather than an officially greenlit project. It will be a version around six and a half hours long, featuring deleted footage and potentially new material. 

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If realised, the proposed megacut would not simply slice the two theatrical releases together but could draw on scenes that were shot and subsequently omitted. Basically, ending up with a fresh narrative altogether. Wonder how that would be? 

Director Andy Muschietti had specifically identified two pieces of unused footage that illustrate what a supercut could offer. In a 2019 interview with Consequence of Sound, Muschietti shared that a scene set in the 1600s was originally intended to hint at Pennywise’s early presence in Derry. But it was left out of IT: Chapter Two because it risked overexplaining the creature’s origins.

“The problem is that people sometimes want to know a little more, but if you give them too much, then they’re disappointed. It’s like a magic trick in a way,” he said.

In the same conversation, Muschietti also described a sequence featuring Maturin the Turtle, which is a symbolic figure from Stephen King’s IT novel. King used the turtle as a visual metaphor for hope and transformation that ties back to King’s broader mythos. 

“It’s a beautiful scene, but I had to leave it out over pacing reasons… it was very emotional, but it was not in the right moment where things had to move faster,” Muschietti explained. 

Although no megacut is confirmed, the existence of fully shot yet unused material suggests a rich alternate IT experience might be possible.

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Would you want to see every lost thread of Pennywise’s lore, or should some horrors stay buried? Share your thoughts below.