Welcome to Derry Star’s Hidden Link to the It Movies

Here is a fun little full-circle casting story: Stephen Rider almost played Mike Hanlon in It Chapter Two. He did not get it. Six years later, he is starring in the It prequel series anyway. Sometimes Hollywood does deliver on the 'we want to work with you' email.

The 2019 near-miss

Talking to Entertainment Weekly, Rider said he got deep into the casting process for adult Mike Hanlon in 2019's It Chapter Two. Deep as in flying to Toronto, meeting executive producer Barbara Muschietti and the team, seeing concept material, and screen testing. He felt the chemistry. The role ultimately went to Isaiah Mustafa.

The reasoning, as Rider heard it, was classic casting math: director Andy Muschietti wanted the adult Losers to visually line up with their younger counterparts. Chosen Jacobs played young Mike in the two-part It films, and Andy also wanted Mike to look more 'weathered' than the other adults because Mike is the only one who stayed in Derry while everyone else got to forget all the horror. Tough note to lose a job on, but it tracks with the character.

Rider admits he was crushed at the time. Then came this email from Andy:

'It was the hardest decision I had to make thus far as a director, but I genuinely want to work with you in future films.'

Cut to: Welcome to Derry

Six years later, that promise paid off. Rider is part of the main cast of It: Welcome to Derry as Hank Grogan. Even though he did not play Mike, he is still orbiting that character: the prequel pulls from the interlude sections of Stephen King's novel, the pieces Mike assembled as Derry's unofficial history. So Rider is now embedded in the lore Mike curated. Kind of a perfect pivot.

What this prequel is doing

Andy Muschietti has mapped out a three-season plan. Each season steps back another 27 years. Season 1 is set in 1962 and centers on a couple who move to Derry, Maine, with their son right as a young boy vanishes. Their arrival lines up with the town's... let’s call it return to form. You know how it goes in Derry.

• 2019: Stephen Rider auditions and screen tests for adult Mike Hanlon in It Chapter Two; Isaiah Mustafa is cast instead.
• Reason given: Andy Muschietti wanted the adults to resemble the child actors, and Mike needed to look more 'weathered' since he stayed in Derry; Chosen Jacobs played young Mike.
• Andy emails Rider that it was his hardest directorial decision and he wants to work with him in the future.
• Now: Rider stars in It: Welcome to Derry as Hank Grogan.
• Story source material: the Derry history interludes compiled by Mike Hanlon in King's novel.
• Series plan: three seasons, each one 27 years earlier; Season 1 set in 1962 about a couple who move to Derry as a boy disappears and bad things start happening.
• Premiere: It: Welcome to Derry hits HBO on October 26, 2025.

Not a bad consolation prize. More like a delayed win.