Director Andrés Muschietti revealed that an infamous scene from the IT novel by Stephen King will not be in the 2017 movie adaptation. The scene is highly controversial, but shows the main characters (as children) engaging in sexual intercourse during a pivotal battle against the demon Pennywise.
In a recent interview with Collider, Muschetti says that the scene was not shot, but is replaced with another scene that is a less controversial moment. The scene still has the same symbolic effect as the sex scene, and still serves to show the end of childhood and the strengthened bond between the friends:
“Well, I think the whole story is a bit of a — approaches the theme of growing up, and the group sex episode in the book is a bit of a metaphor of the end of childhood and into adulthood. And I don’t think it was really needed in the movie, apart that it was very hard to allow us to shoot an orgy in the movie so, I didn’t think it was necessary because the story itself is a bit of a journey, and it illustrates that. And in the end, the replacement for it is the scene with the blood oath, where everyone sort of says goodbye.
Spoiler. The blood oath scene is there and it’s the last time they see each other as a group. It’s unspoken. And they don’t know it, but it’s a bit of a foreboding that this is the last time, and being together was a bit of a necessity to beat the monster. Now that the monster recedes, they don’t need to be together. And also because their childhood is ending, and their adulthood is starting. And that’s the bittersweet moment of that sequence.”
The scene is a bit off in the novel, but is a big moment that shows the kids beginning to rationalize how a single act may change their situation. The sequence shows how a sacrifice of purity may be the thing that brings the group back together, allowing them to defeat Pennywise and end his reign of terror, but would still be a bit too racy for the big screen though.
