Cast of It Chapter 1: Full Actors List (2017 Movie)

If you’ve ever wondered who brought Stephen King’s Derry nightmare to life on the big screen, the 2017 It adaptation has an answer worth knowing. The film assembles a young ensemble cast—most of them barely teenagers at the time—alongside Bill Skarsgård’s unsettling take on the shape-shifting clown. Finn Wolfhard, who would later blow up as a Netflix star, already stood out among the group as the wisecracking Richie Tozier.

Director: Andy Muschietti · Pennywise: Bill Skarsgård · Bill Denbrough: Jaeden Martell · Beverly Marsh: Sophia Lillis · Richie Tozier: Finn Wolfhard

Six actors populate the top cast rows across major film databases, with Wikipedia and TV Guide leading in verified credits.

Cast of it chapter 1 full movie

Losers’ Club Main Cast

The Losers Club forms the emotional core of It Chapter One. Seven outcast children unite against Pennywise in Derry, Maine, during the summer of 1988-1989. Jaeden Martell portrays Bill Denbrough, the group’s stuttering leader still grieving his younger brother Georgie, who was killed by the clown. Jeremy Ray Taylor plays Ben Hanscom, the new kid carrying a secret crush on Beverly. Sophia Lillis makes her film debut as Beverly Marsh, the only girl in the group and the object of each boy’s affections. Finn Wolfhard (Richie Tozier), Jack Dylan Grazer (Eddie Kaspbrak), Chosen Jacobs (Mike Hanlon), and Wyatt Oleff (Stanley Uris) round out the seven-person ensemble. Each actor was in early adolescence when filming wrapped, lending the production an authenticity that elevated the source material’s coming-of-age elements. TV Guide’s full cast listing confirms every actor credited in these roles, with Wikipedia adding director Andy Muschietti’s specific praise for the young ensemble’s chemistry during production.

Pennywise and Antagonists

Bill Skarsgård plays It / Pennywise The Dancing Clown—an ancient trans-dimensional evil that awakens every 27 years, feeding on children’s fear by shape-shifting into their worst nightmares. Skarsgård took over the role after Will Poulter, originally cast, dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. The shift proved consequential: director Andy Muschietti later said Skarsgård could switch from cute to ancestral dark in a single frame. On the human antagonist side, Nicholas Hamilton portrays Henry Bowers, leader of the Bowers Gang, with Jake Sim as Belch Huggins, Logan Thompson as Victor Criss, and Owen Teague as Patrick Hockstetter—Henry’s psychopathic follower. TV Guide credits confirm all four actors in these roles.

Adult Supporting Roles

Parents and adult figures populate the film’s background. Stephen Bogaert plays Alvin Marsh, Beverly’s abusive father—a role that earned criticism for its disturbing portrayal. Geoffrey Pounsett portrays Zack Denbrough, Bill and Georgie’s grieving father. Steven Williams plays Leroy Hanlon, Mike Hanlon’s grandfather who raises him after his parents die. Molly Atkinson appears as Sonia Kaspbrak, Eddie’s overprotective mother whose hypochondria infects her son. These performances anchor the children’s horror in domestic dysfunction, a hallmark of Stephen King’s novel that the film preserves through adult casting choices verified across multiple sources.

Cast of it chapter 1 pennywise

Bill Skarsgård’s Role

Bill Skarsgård took on what became a career-defining role as Pennywise, the shape-shifting entity that terrorizes the children of Derry, Maine. Skarsgård reprised the part in It Chapter Two (2019) and the 2025 Max series It: Welcome to Derry, marking rare continuity across a franchise adaptation. His approach to the clown differed sharply from Tim Curry’s theatrical performance in the 1990 miniseries—where Curry played Pennywise as menacing camp, Skarsgård pursued something more feral and unpredictable. Wikipedia’s profile on the actor quotes director Andy Muschietti describing the casting: “One second he can act all cute, and then the next, there’s something ancestral and dark that just appears.” The younger Skarsgård brought physical intensity to the role that Curry, at that stage in his career, did not attempt.

Character Background

Pennywise exists outside human time, awakening every 27 years to feed on the children of Derry before returning to dormancy. In the 2017 film, this cycle positions the Losers Club’s summer against an ancient predator. The character’s canonical backstory—explored more fully in Stephen King’s novel—frames It as an interdimensional entity that adopted the clown form after encountering human circuses in the 1700s. Vague Visages profiles confirm this origin while noting the film streamlines the mythology for runtime efficiency. Skarsgård’s performance emphasizes the predator aspect: hunting, patience, and the pleasure of fear over brute violence.

Cast of It Chapter 1 Beverly

Sophia Lillis as Beverly Marsh

Sophia Lillis portrays Beverly Marsh in her feature film debut—a performance that launched her career and remains one of the most praised elements of the 2017 adaptation. Beverly is the only girl in the Losers Club, marked by her distinct red hair and a home life complicated by her abusive father Alvin Marsh (Stephen Bogaert). The character’s arc connects the group’s formation to a shared trauma that transcends gender lines—a dynamic Lillis played with surprising emotional range for a young actress. TV Guide credits confirm her role alongside six other principal Losers Club members. Following It Chapter One, Lillis starred in the Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House and its 2020 sequel, establishing herself as a genre-horror standout.

Supporting Girl Roles

Beyond Beverly, the film includes limited female roles outside the Losers Club. The supporting cast features adult women in caretaker positions—Molly Atkinson as Eddie’s mother Sonia Kaspbrak, and other actresses in smaller roles verified through TV Guide’s full cast listing. The relative scarcity of female characters beyond Beverly reflects the source novel’s gender dynamics, where Beverly functions as the singular female presence among male outcasts. Critics noted this imbalance in reviews, though Lillis’s performance largely overshadowed structural limitations.

Cast of It Chapter 1 Eddie

Eddie Kaspbrak Actor

Jack Dylan Grazer portrays Eddie Kaspbrak, the hypochondriac best friend of Bill who carries his mother’s fears into irrational germaphobia. Grazer, like Finn Wolfhard, later achieved wider fame through Netflix’s Stranger Things, where he plays Eddie Munson—a character whose name echoes his It role through deliberate fan service in the series. In It Chapter One, Grazer’s Eddie provides physical vulnerability alongside Richie’s verbal humor, creating a contrast that defines their friendship dynamic. Wikipedia confirms the casting, with TV Guide adding verification of his role in the Bowers Gang confrontations that drive the film’s mid-section conflict.

Family Members

Eddie Kaspbrak’s mother Sonia, played by Molly Atkinson, represents one of the film’s clearest links between adult dysfunction and childhood trauma. Her overprotective parenting—keeping Eddie isolated and afraid of the outside world—mirrors the film’s broader theme of Derry as a town where adults fail to protect children. Geoffrey Pounsett’s Zack Denbrough serves a similar structural function for Bill, whose brother Georgie’s death drives the entire narrative. Steven Williams rounds out the parent cast as Leroy Hanlon, Mike’s grandfather who raises him after tragedy. Wikipedia and TV Guide credits confirm all three actors in these family roles.

Cast of IT Chapter 1 Richie mom

Richie Tozier Family

Richie Tozier’s home life receives less direct attention than the other Losers Club members, though his parents appear in peripheral scenes. The film does not prominently feature an actor credited specifically as Richie’s mother—the character’s family exists more as offscreen presence than active role. This relative absence contrasts with Beverly’s abusive father and Eddie’s smothering mother, leaving Richie’s parental situation more ambiguous. Finn Wolfhard’s Richie instead gains definition through dialogue and interaction with the group, particularly his foul language and comedic routines that mask deeper fears. Wikipedia’s filmography confirms no standalone parent credit for Richie Tozier in the 2017 adaptation.

Other Parental Roles

The broader parent cast includes Stephen Bogaert (Alvin Marsh), Geoffrey Pounsett (Zack Denbrough), Steven Williams (Leroy Hanlon), and Molly Atkinson (Sonia Kaspbrak)—actors verified across Wikipedia and TV Guide as representing the film’s adult authority figures. These characters function collectively as a failed protective system that forces the Losers Club to confront Pennywise alone. The production’s writers—Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga, and Gary Dauberman—shaped these roles from Stephen King’s novel, prioritizing domestic horror elements over extended family exposition.

Five years after the 2017 release, several young cast members achieved significant career momentum that retroactively validates their casting. Finn Wolfhard, Sophia Lillis, and Jack Dylan Grazer all landed prominent Netflix roles. Jaeden Martell’s Bill Denbrough, meanwhile, set him up for the adult sequel role taken by James McAvoy in 2019—a progression that underscores how early casting decisions shaped franchise architecture.

For readers planning to watch the film or its 2019 sequel, the cast lineage matters: Bill Skarsgård appears across all three contemporary installments, while the Losers Club roles split between child and adult actors depending on the chapter. Catching up before the 2025 Max series means understanding that Skarsgård is the thread connecting the entire franchise.