Richie's storyline in IT: Chapter Two is breaking everyone's hearts

13 September 2019, 15:40

"Me coming back home thinking about Richie and Eddie, my heart is completely broken."

While IT: Chapter Two is based on the second half of Stephen King's novel It, the film decided to make a few conscious changes from the original source material. One of those changes was the ending of the film (which omitted one of the weirder parts of the novel), and another one of those changes was Richie Tozier's storyline.

Originally played by Finn Wolfhard and portrayed by Bill Hader in Chapter Two, Richie's personal story within the film is a lot different than it is in the books – and the change has had audiences weeping since it was released.

READ MORE: IT: Chapter Two's vicious gay hate crime in opening scene explained

Just when fans thought they were about to head into the cinema to be scared out their minds by Pennywise, everyone is ending up walking out in tears thanks to Richie and what he goes through in the film.

WARNING: This article contains MAJOR IT: Chapter Two spoilers. If you haven't seen the film or read the original book... RUN!

In IT: Chapter Two, it's revealed that Richie's 'secret' that Pennywise keeps alluding to is that he's gay and has been secretly in love with Eddie for years. Essentially, the reason why Pennywise knows and taunts Eddie about being gay is because having his sexuality revealed to the world terrifies him – and, of course as we know, Pennywise feeds off fear.

While Richie's sexuality isn't discussed or explicitly stated in the original book, the film makes it more of a focus of his character although he never discusses it.

In the end, it seems like Richie comes to terms with his sexuality within himself and is able to help kill Pennywise along with the other Losers. But before he's able to tell Eddie, Eddie is killed.

At the end of the film, Eddie gets fatally injured trying to kill Pennywise and later dies. Richie then watches as the house on Neibolt Street collapses, with Eddie's body still inside. In the film's final scenes, we see Richie re-carving his and Eddie initials into the bridge.

Between Eddie's death and Richie's heartbreaking story, everyone is absolutely devastated over the conclusion of their storyline.

Speaking to The New York Times about Richie's sexuality, Bill Hader revealed that he and director Andy Muschietti debated how much to reveal considering it wasn't explicitly referenced in the book: "Andy and I talked about how overt we should make it, and I said if it’s not overt, then why is he in the movie? You can’t do a half measure on it. You’ve got to go the full way or don’t even allude to it. Let’s not be coy."

Hader also revealed that they shot several different variations of Eddie's death scene too, with Richie reacting in several different ways.

"We did a lot of different versions of Eddie’s death scene," he said in the interview. "We did one where he’s clearly dead, and I’m refusing to recognize it. And some where I was very tender with him, where I’m caressing his face — this is the person I love, and it wasn’t just lust. It’s truly love."

He continued: "[In other scenes] I was playing off James, but knowing on some level that I loved him. It’s something [Richie] can’t connect to, so he has to hate that thing. It’s very adolescent. “I have a crush on you, but I don’t want to tell you that, so I’m going to push you away. But man, if he made the first move, that’d be the best thing ever.”

Why am I crying?! Justice for Reddie.