It Chapter 2: Every Character Ranked Worst To Best

5. Bill Denborough - James McAvoy/Jaeden Martell

In the first movie, Jaeden Martell's Bill is the lead, because the entire story blossoms out of the death of his brother. This film is a continuation of that arc, in that it follows Bill's accountability back a little further.

Bill here is mostly just a stand-in for Stephen King, though. He's the author's usual trick of writing himself into his stories, only he might as well have a "Hello, my name is Stephen" name-tag on, so unsubtle is the allusion. When the real King rejects him signing his book because it's not very good, you know it's gone too far.

There is a fair bit of good in there and McAvoy is strong with what he's got to do (aside for his stutter being a little less organic than Martell's), but he's not quite up to the performance of his younger co-star, who is great when he returns to confront Georgie again.