Rumours ran rampant that someone in particular was in the frame to play the iconic villain – and producer Barbara Muschietti confirmed that the speculation was true.
The reason it didn’t work out, however, was simply because of a scheduling conflict.
“She wasn’t available,” Muschietti revealed to Complex earlier in the summer. “No, no I swear to god. She was not.
“We had a slot to shoot the movie and she wasn’t available so she didn’t even audition.”
She added: “But of course, we all thought about it.”
Ultimately of course, it was Bill Skarsgard who got the part.
Speaking to Variety’s Playback podcast, he admitted that he didn’t let himself get too optimistic about the box office potential of the movie.
He said: “At the back of my head, even coming up to the release – people were like, ‘it’s going to do this well!’
“And then the box office surprised everybody. Even the most optimistic projections were like half of it!
“Up until everything, I just felt like something really terrible was going to happen to me personally – thing just seemed to be going too well.”
The film will return for a sequel in 2019, with Skarsgard already attached.
It is out now.