'It: Chapter 2' first trailer drops

Prepare for the return of everyone's favourite creepy clown

Bill Skarsgard in a scene from It. Brooke Palmer / Warner Bros Pictures via AP

The first trailer for the forthcoming It: Chapter 2 dropped last night, and although The Losers' Club are all grown up now, it doesn't look like Pennywise the Clown has any intention of letting them live a quiet life just yet.

The majority of the trailer is actually more of a complete scene, featuring a grown up Beverly Marsh (Jessica Chastain) who returns to her childhood home, which is now occupied by an adorable elderly woman. The dark humour and creepy vibe, not to mention the small army of flies on the window and the woman seemingly transforming into some kind of freakish monster whenever she’s out of Beverley’s line of sight, however, suggest she may not be quite as adorable as we first thought.

The last part of the trailer introduces us to the rest of the grown up Losers’ Club via a choppy montage, reintroducing characters like Bill Denbrough (James McAvoy) and Richie Tozier (Bill Hader), who will have to return to the town of Derry and reunite to defeat Pennywise once and for all.

We also see that we’ll still be seeing plenty of the young cast from the first film in the sequel, which looks set to be a mix of present-day action and flashbacks to the first movie’s eighties setting.

Elsewhere, there are some creepy face-paint-peeling shots, lots of red balloons, and an apparent couple of nods to The Shining – Beverley appears to be drowning in a pool of blood in a scene resonant of the blood-filled lift from Kubrick's classic, while the photo in Beverley's old flat of Pennywise as a circus worker could actually be Sam Torrance.

Most importantly, this first teaser gives every indication that director Andy Muschietti will successfully return to the brooding, nostalgic, fairy tale-come-nightmare atmosphere of the first film that made it such a hit.