Stephen King’s ‘It’: First Official Photo Of The Other Big Villains Emerges

The much-anticipated film adaptation of Stephen King’s It is due out September 8, and a large portion of King fans and movie buffs are very excited to get a load of the film’s iconic primary protagonist, Pennywise the dancing clown. Those who have not read the book, though, will probably not be aware that there is another group of antagonists who give the Losers’ Club (the name Stephen King gives to his work’s main group of seven protagonists) just as much trouble as Pennywise. That group is The Bowers Gang, and the first official photo of its three primary members in costume has just been released on Instagram.

Before going any further, it should be made clear that King’s Bowers Gang, Derry’s resident group of bullies led by Henry Bowers, was indeed included in the extremely popular 1990 miniseries based on Stephen King’s novel. The group didn’t do as much and were far less threatening than they were in King’s writing, though, so many people, even those that have seen the miniseries, will not realize their importance to Stephen King’s story.

The photo was posted yesterday afternoon by Logan Thompson, the actor playing one of the gang’s members named Victor Criss. It depicts the three central members of Stephen King’s fictional gang, Henry Bowers, Victor Criss, and Belch Huggins, enjoying some popsicles while leaning on the hood of a blue sports car. The members were all too young to drive as children in Stephen King’s book — they were between 12- and 13-years-old — and none of them owned a car, so it is unclear whether they were aged up for the adaption.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSuG_RfAANe/

Criss is sporting a crop of straw-colored blond hair, Huggins is wearing a dowdy-looking baseball cap, and Bowers is rocking a full-on mullet. The last bit is a classic fashion statement from the 1980s — the time period in which the film is set as opposed to the 50s setting of Stephen King’s book — and fans seem to especially love the mullet on almost any forum where the image is posted.

The fourth member of Stephen King’s gang and possibly the most disturbing of them all, Patrick Hocksetter, is conspicuously absent. It is probable that has something to do with the missing persons poster bearing his face and name that can be spotted at the 58-second mark in the trailer, although he is not taken out of the picture until fairly late in Stephen King’s telling.

Henry Bowers and the members of his gang were some of the first casting decisions announced, and they have played significantly larger roles in marketing materials (including the trailer, seen below) than they did for the 1990 miniseries, so it seems very probable a more complete version of the gang’s influence on the story (as Stephen King intended it) will be included in the movie.

[WARNING: The following paragraph (below the video) contains spoilers for Stephen King’s It novel and quite possibly the upcoming movie’s plot, so don’t continue if you haven’t read the book and want to remain unspoiled.]

In King’s book, Henry Bowers is responsible for some pretty heinous acts. He carves a letter into Ben Hascomb’s chest, poisons and kills Mike Hanlon’s dog, and breaks Eddie Kaspbrak’s arm as a child. He also hospitalizes Mike and attempts to kill Eddie as an adult. The rest of the gang do not actually do much damage themselves, but they cheer on Henry and suffer horrible deaths as children. Very little of this was included in the Stephen King’s It TV miniseries (save Belch’s death, which the Inquisitr recently testified was extremely well-done), likely because it could not be included in a network broadcast while maintaining a relatively child-friendly TV-14 rating.

Stephen King’s ‘IT’ Wins Us Over With Creepy As Hell First Trailer https://t.co/Ha3LulnUrV pic.twitter.com/0ppdPNtuOB

— Jon Wesley Jr (@JonWesleyJr) April 13, 2017

This adaptation of Stephen King’s masterful tome, however, is not being aimed at children and is confirmed by Screen Rant to be rated R. That means it will likely include all the details, however graphic, of the Bowers Gang’s actions.

How is the gang looking to you in this Instagram photo? Are you excited to see Bowers and Huggins and Criss (oh my!), Stephen King’s nastiest group of adolescents, in action?

[Featured Image by Caseycallenderart/Deviant Art]