Are The It Stars The New Stranger Things Kids?

If I’m being honest with you, when the It trailer premiere portion of the 2017 MTV Movie And TV Awards began, I asked myself, “Why are the Stranger Things kids doing this?” Then I realized the sole female cast member on stage — eye roll — was not Millie Bobby Brown, but, It star Sophia Lillis. Plus, Will Byers was nowhere to be found. That’s when it dawned on me I was actually staring at the It cast. And now it’s obvious these seven precocious young people are poised to become the next Stranger kids phenomenon; the entire formula is all there.

First of all, the Stephen King adaptation of a Stephen King adaptation already has Stranger Things’s second most recognizable young star in Finn Wolfhard, whom we know best as Mike Wheeler, Hawkins’s best dungeon master. The trailer for It relies heavily on how much audiences already love Wolfhard by letting him do a majority of the talking. The Stranger favorite is clearly the star of the only full scene we get a peek at, where he gets boyishly gross and smells a stick possibly stuck in sewer water.

But, including Wolfhard isn’t the only reason the It clique — also consisting of aforementioned actress Lillis, Chosen Jacobs, Wyatt Oleff, Jack Dylan Grazer, Jeremy Ray Taylor, and Jaeden Lieberher — is the Stranger Things cast’s heir apparent. They also have a lovably diverse cast of Youths, including one young woman with a short haircut reminiscent of none other than Millie Bobby Brown’s. Think of all the adorably friendly interviews we’re about to see to prove these kids are the best of friends. Starting today, they’ve probably even began their upcoming domination of red carpets everywhere, and we’re here for it.

If all of this doesn’t prove we’re all about to be obsessed with the It kids, the actual subject matter of their movie does. Just like with Stranger Things, we’re dealing with young people riding bikes and fighting their own version of evil in a small town. All you have to do is take out the Demogorgon in favor of Pennywise The World’s Most Frightening Clown (Bill Skarsgård). Who wouldn’t be obsessed with that?